


Just Let Me Go

by Balonius



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Feels, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-01
Updated: 2015-04-03
Packaged: 2018-03-15 18:59:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 18
Words: 31,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3458258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Balonius/pseuds/Balonius
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"It's Clara. She's dying and no one knows what's happening to her." The journey of one Time Lord against the clock to find the killer of his best friend and bring her back from the dead. However, he doesn't realise that his best friend is watching his journey all along. As truth is revealed, he realises there is more to the killer than meets the eye.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: The Phone Call

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, welcome to my story! It's an idea that came to me in a dream - I hope no one's tried it yet :P

The Doctor held a pickaxe in his hand and started abseiling down into the dark abyss.

“Oooh, Clara, you will love this. A rock that glows when you touch it. I know that you absolutely adore this kind of stuff.” He softly murmured to himself as he gently tapped the surface of the translucent cliff with the pickaxe. He smiled as the brilliant light danced in front of the eyes when the pickaxe hit the cliff. Just as he acquired a rock of a satisfying size, the phone started ringing. He jumped at the sound, and with a sigh, he climbed back up to the TARDIS.

“Hello?” That sounded gruffer than he thought.

“… Hello? Is this the… Doctor?” A frail old lady’s voice came through the line.

“Maybe. Who is this? How did you get my number?”

Through the line, he heard a sob.

 “She said I needed to call you. She said that you were the best helpline in the universe.”

“Who said? Who is she? Who are you?” The Doctor was slightly getting impatient.

There was another painful pause.

“She’s very ill.” The woman on the other line sniffled. “Doctor, please help my granddaughter. Save her. For me. Please.”

“Who’s your granddaughter? Listen, if you’re going to be any vaguer, I’m going to hang up.” He said, his patience wearing thin.

“It’s Clara. She collapsed at work. She’s dying and no one knows what’s happening to her.”

At the mention of her name, he dropped the phone. He sprinted around the console urgently, and landed immediately at the location of the call.

The Doctor opened the door to be confronted with an empty bed in a hospital room.

“You missed her.” Dave replied, bereft. He was clutching onto Clara’s green coat, with his eyes filled with tears. “She died five minutes ago.”

The Doctor dropped the translucent rock, and it shattered into pieces on the cold, hard hospital floor.


	2. The Daily Routine

Turn the alarm off, eat breakfast, brush teeth, get ready, take the motorcycle and drive to work. That was Clara’s normal morning routine. But not today. She woke up extra early. She made a mug of tea and hummed to the calendar and circled the date.

It was a Wednesday, which meant it was ‘travelling with the Doctor Day’. She always looked forward to Wednesdays – even more than Fridays or Saturdays.

She eagerly looked at the watch and waited for the welcoming sound to appear. 5 minutes… 10 minutes… an hour.

“I’m going to be late for work.” She sighed in defeat, gathered her markings and got on the motorbike. However, when she turned the engine, it stalled.

“Oh come on!” Clara yelled and kicked the tires in frustration.

Clara checked the watch and swore under her breath. “10 mins till school starts.”

She ran. She bumped into quite a lot of pedestrians in the way, but it didn’t matter. Being on time did. She had lots to do on a Wednesday. Senior English class, drama club supervision, yard duty, double English with COURTNEY… she sighed even at the thought of it. Although, the trip to the moon did change her a little. It gave her some inspiration, and motivated her to do more work than before. Still, Courtney was Courtney. It didn’t mean she stopped getting into fights with students and staff members of the school.

Her chain of thought disappeared when she saw a green glowing rock dropping out of someone’s bag. Clara stopped running and picked it up. She chased the man and tapped her in the shoulder with a cough.

“Hey, excuse me, you dropped this.” Clara handed the glowy rock thing. She looked up to see a face… not human. It looked like one of those spoonhead things, but with two blue glowing eyes and a mouth-like hole in the middle. She gasped.

The alien punched her square in the jaw. Then, ‘it’ crouched down to pick up the rock Clara was holding, only to find it vaporise into the air. The alien muttered some angry gibberish and left without a trace.

Clara sat on the pavement, dumbfounded. “What the hell just happened?” She whispered to herself. She traced her jaw, where a bruise was already forming. Then, she saw her watch. She was already ten minutes late! After picking her bags and markings up from the pavement and gathering her thoughts, she sprinted to Coal Hill High School.

By the end of her first English class, she was dozing off. She shouldn’t be the one to doze off – she was the teacher!

“Miss, what happened to your face?” A student asked.

“Nothing. Let’s just say an alien from outer space punched me.” She said nonchalantly. The student looked at her with a confused frown but that was the end of the discussion.

Drama club supervision was alright because Adrian did all the work. He always did all the work. Bless. Clara sat on one of the audiences’ seats and dozed off again. She was so exhausted for some reason- and it wasn’t even afternoon yet (or had Courtney for a lesson).

Yard duty was when everything started to become woozy. The dizziness made it really difficult to stand on one spot and/or walk around, supervising the kids. She couldn’t let all the kids see it though, so she leaned on the school wall, acting natural. She was never going to go home sick. She had it all under control.

Then, it was time for double English… featuring Courtney.

“Courtney, stop chucking stuff at Liam!” Clara told her off, knowing that it won’t work.

“But miss, I’m bored.” She retorted.

“Come on Courtney. Behave.” She slipped a sheet of paper under her notebooks. She knew it was going to motivate her.

“If you misbehave, I’ll tell the Doctor.” The note had said. That note always worked on her. She shouldn’t threaten students but it was Courtney and she was never an ordinary student.

Courtney looked at it in shock and started working, just as she thought. Clara smirked and returned to her table, slightly stumbling. What was happening to her?

As she sat down, she wiggled her fingers around. They were feeling sluggish. Strange. The numbness were spreading, and by 2:30 pm, she couldn’t feel her left arm.

‘Come on, just be okay for thirty minutes.’ She told herself. Thirty minutes and she could go home. End of school, go home and sleep on her big, comfortable bed.

“Miss, could you explain to us the symbolism used in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest?” Katrina asked. It was always Katrina, Katrina the model student. Other times, she would be delighted to. But she was dreading even to get up from her chair. But she had to. She needed to, as she knew no one had understood the concept of it in the first place. ’30 minutes.’ She said over and over in her head. ‘Just 30 minutes.’ She breathed out, trying to steady herself.

“Right, so…” She got up, but then, she slammed on the side of the wall after losing balance. Some students let out a giggle.

Oh no.

She landed on the floor and that was that. The last thing she saw was the student’s faces indistinctively yelling at her with their worries/bemused/surprised eyes.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Clara opened her eyes. There was something covering her face… she felt a burning sensation to her sides. She reached out to feel a tube leading inside her. What was happening? 

 “Clara!” It was her dad. Well of course it was. “Oh my god, what is wrong with you?! Going to work even though you’re sick. You know, when you are sick, even just a little bit, you have to…”

Clara groaned and switched her dad’s never-ending speech off. Speaking of her brain, she had a sharp headache… actually, body ache. She ripped the oxygen mask off. It finally registered that she was in a hospital. White, sterile room, worried faces… the bed and the sickly green sheet of shame she was wearing. She loathed hospital gowns. She loathed hospital in general.

“You should keep the mask on, dear. Just in case.” It was her gran. The sight of her always made her relaxed. Her gran gently placed the mask on her face again.

“Gran… Sorry about what happened… Wait, what happened?” Clara frowned.

“Don’t be sorry dear. It wasn’t your fault.” Her gran stroked her hair.

“Kidney failure. You have a bloody kidney failure. Why didn’t you tell us? You must have had warning symptoms before. Why do you always hide stuff from us?” Her dad frustratingly asked.

“What? Kidney failure?” She paused. She suddenly remembered the kids… She was in her English class. “Oh my stars.”  She covered her face in embarrassment. “They saw everything, didn’t they? I was teaching an English class. Oh no, no no… this is not happening.”

“The kids handled it well, don’t worry.” There was another voice.

“Adrian?” She sat up, flinching with pain. The pain was getting worse, but she had to hide it in front of her family, and definitely Adrian. She didn’t want them to worry.

“Hey, glad you’re doing better. I was getting worried, you know… with all that stuff with Danny few months back. I thought I was going to lose you too.” He said, placing a bouquet of flower on the bedside table. “… also, the kids made you a get well card. I helped.” He awkwardly smiled and placed a gigantic card on the table as well.

“Awww, that’s so sweet.” Clara smiled, hiding the sadness. It still hurt when anyone talked about Danny. “I promise you, I’m fine. You won’t be able to get rid of me that easily.” She chuckled, but stopped as soon as the wave of sleepiness tried to control her. “Anyway, I think whatever this is, it’s affecting me.” She said, holding up her IV hand. “If you don’t mind, is it okay if I get more sleep?” Clara asked. She probably didn’t need to, but it seemed like a polite thing to do.

“Of course, dear. Good night.”  Her gran kissed her on the cheek.

“Night Clara. Hope you get well.” Adrian smiled. The darkness took over her again.

The next time she was awake was not a good memory. It was like she was being dragged underwater while being stabbed repeatedly. There were shining lights everywhere, panicked, indistinct voices and most importantly, pain.

“Doctor, what’s happening to her?” It was as if someone was whispering in her dreams.

“She’s having a liver failure, but we haven’t found the reason why yet. These things are not common with a person her age. “

“Is she going to be okay?”

“We can’t promise anything. I’m sorry.”

The next time she woke up, she was surrounded by tubes.

“We’ve moved?” Clara croaked. It wasn’t the room she woke up in initially. It was dark, only lit by the artificial lights from the millions of monitors next to her. She tried to sit up, but was met by a wave of dizzying pain.

“Hello dear. You’ll be alright. Just breathe.”

“Gran. I’m sorry. I really don’t want you to worry.” Clara apologised.

“No, dear. It’s alright. It’s really alright.” Her gran squeezed her hand.

A doctor came in.

“Hello, Clara. How are you feeling? My name is Doctor Lanzou.”

“Hi. Um… I feel very numb.” She couldn’t really describe what she was experiencing. It felt like she was trying to speak in dreams. “Is this a dream?” She asked, confused.

“That’s okay, that’s just the pain killers.” He said with a soothing voice, scribbling something down. While he was checking her all over, Clara found the courage to ask him a question.

 “Doctor, what’s happening to me?”

He paused. “We… don’t know yet. All we know is that your organs are failing one by one. We’re trying our best to get your organs going. You’ve had a kidney failure, liver failure and even a collapsed lung. When we know what you’re suffering from, you’ll be the first to find out. Okay?” He gave her a reassuring smile.

Clara nodded with disappointment and sadness. “Got it.” Suddenly, another wave of pain struck her.

There were people running around once again, flashing lights and then quietness.

“Clara, I’m always here if you need me. I know you can make it alive. Come on.” She wondered how long her gran had been beside her. She couldn’t remember much every time she woke up, as she was barely conscious, but she always acknowledged the fact that her gran was there, watching over her.

Even Clara knew that every second there, everything was becoming worse.

She had no idea how long had passed. But she woke up feeling her gran’s warm hand on hers.

“Gran.” Clara gently tapped her gran’s hand. Even that gesture was sparking pain along her body, so she stopped after a few taps. “If I don’t make it alive…”

“Don’t say that.” Clara’s gran said firmly. “You’re going to live past me, you hear? You’re only 28. You have a whole life ahead of you.”

Clara ignored her, she had to tell her Gran. “… if I don’t make it alive, I need you to call a number. The number should be written in a notepad inside my coat. It’s the best helpline in the universe. His name is the Doctor, but he’s changed since you met him on Christmas. I need you to tell him what happened.”

“You can tell him yourself when you get all better.” Her gran smiled sadly.

Clara smiled. “But if I don’t, you have to. I’m going to say this just in case I won’t be able to later.” Tears fell around her mask. “I love you, gran, more than anyone else in the world.”

Clara fell asleep again.

Dave walked in huffing. “The Doctors gave her one week to live. What are they? Gods?! They don’t even know what’s wrong with her!”

Clara’s gran looked at her with sad eyes.

Halfway through the night, it started again. The pain, the never ending pain. Clara’s gran watched in pain as she saw her gasping for her breath. Her precious granddaughter was suffering so much. So much for what? She didn’t deserve any of this.

She found a phone number in Clara’s green coat as she said. While waiting in the waiting room until her condition stabilised, she reluctantly dialled the number.

“Hello?” A gruff voice answered. This was definitely not the young (naked) man she saw last Christmas.

“… Hello? Is this the… Doctor?” She nervously said.

“Maybe. Who is this? How did you get my number?”

She sobbed. Maybe this wasn’t it. She held on though. If her granddaughter trusts him, she could too.

 “She said I needed to call you. She said that you were the best helpline in the universe.”

“Who said? Who is she? Who are you?”

She couldn’t bear saying it.

“She’s very ill.” She sniffled. “Doctor, please help my granddaughter. Save her for me. Please.”

“Who’s your granddaughter? Listen, if you’re going to be any vaguer, I’m going to hang up.”

“It’s Clara. She collapsed at work. She’s dying and no one knows what’s happening to her.” She blurted. Suddenly the line went dead.

The doctors came out with sadness cast in their eyes.

“No!” She fell onto the ground. Even before they said it, she knew what they were going to say.

“I am so sorry ma’am. She didn’t make it.”

Dave hugged her, crying as well.

They walked into the room to see a body covered in a white sheet. Dave uncovered the sheet up to the face. Clara’s pretty face, just like Ellie’s, exactly like Ellie’s. There were no expressions on her face now. Her hands were still warm and her cheeks still had some colour. Those were the last traces of her short life.

They stood there as they saw the body being wheeled off to the morgue. They stared at the empty room, with an empty bed.

It was three days. Three days to see their child be destroyed bit by bit. In the process, it destroyed them too.

Suddenly, their grieving silence was interrupted by a groaning noise. It was the blue box. The blue box she was always talking about. Half of the time, they had no idea what she was saying. If only they’d paid more attention to her. Suddenly, all the bad memories flooded in Dave. All the pointless arguments, slamming of doors… even just being annoyed. He just wanted to go back to those memories and hold her, and never let go.

An old man ran out of the box.

“You missed her.” Dave replied, feeling nothing but a big, empty hole. He was clutching onto Clara’s green coat, with his eyes filled with tears. “She died five minutes ago.”

The Doctor dropped the translucent rock, and it shattered into pieces on the cold, hard hospital floor.


	3. The Afterlife

**Clara**  woke up from a grey, silver table. She felt for her body parts, all were intact, all were functional. And best of all, there was no pain. Clara sighed in relief. She looked for her gran, but she wasn't there.

The only person she could see was a scientist on the other side of the glass, who was on a computer with her back towards her.

"Excuse me. Have you seen my gran?" Clara called out. There was no response.

"Hello? Am I invisible or something?" Clara frowned. Still no response.

"Hey!" She tapped her shoulder, but her hand went straight through the scientist's body. She jumped.

"Oh my stars." She covered her mouth in shock. She saw a body covered in a white sheet on the bed she was sleeping on. She crouched down to see a toe tag hanging over the toe.

"Clara Oswald. Born 23/11/86. Died 25/04/15 4:23:34 am." She looked at the clock in the room. "4:31 am" It read. She backed away to a corner and brought her knees close to her body. "I've been dead for 8 minutes." She whispered.

"How am I dead?" She breathed shallowly. Her tears fell. "I am dead." She wept. Grieving for her own death. She was so sad yet confused. Why was she grieving for her own death in the first place? Perhaps she was grieving that everyone except her was alive.

"Right, Clara Oswald's body is here." She looked up. The door creaked open and a young man and a familiar old man entered.

"Doctor!" She yelled and tried to hug him. Her body went straight through his and she landed on the ground. She turned around, gazing at him in despair.

"Right.  **Can**  you give me a moment?"

"Yeah sure thing. Tell me before you leave, sir." The young man said and exited the room.

"Hello Clara." The Doctor softly cooed. He pulled the sheet down to see her face.

"Hello Doctor." She answered. She knew he couldn't hear her, but it made her feel better.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there for  **you**. I had… no idea." He said, choking in tears.

"It's okay Doctor, it wasn't your fault." She said, looking at the ground.

"And I know I should be leaving you to rest, but I apologise for what I'm going to do. There's something I must do." He unlocked the wheels of the table with her body and started wheeling it out.

"Wait, what the hell are you doing?!" She screamed. "Hey! You can't just take my body!" She screamed. "It's mine, Doctor! Leave it there!"

The Doctor wheeled it into the TARDIS, into a freezing room. He opened a coffin-like capsule with a sonic screwdriver. He gently placed her inside, plucked a hair out, took the toe tag and closed the door. The capsule filled up with some sort of oily liquid. Clara shivered. She could feel the cold, sticky liquid submerging her body.

"Now, for my next trick." He placed a strand of Clara's hair inside a machine. In a matter of seconds, another body appeared that looked exactly like her.

"If only this could bring you back to life as well." He said in sorrow. He placed the dummy body on the table, placed a toe tag on the dummy and wheeled it back to where she was.

"Hey, I did not agree to you stealing my body!" Clara yelled from the top of her lungs. "You are insufferable! Even to someone who's dead!" She sighed. He probably had a very good reason why he took her body, but that still didn't excuse him.

Clara lost the Doctor from her sight after the body-switching incident. With boredom, she wandered around the hospital. There were people who were sad, angry, happy, excited. All these emotions she once could share with others. Now she was so alone. So very alone.

She sat on an empty seat in a corridor. Across her, she saw a little girl who was losing the battle with cancer. The sound of a flat line devastated the parents. The little girl, who was now watching her parents and her dead body, exited the room in sadness. She sat next to her.

"Hello." Clara said. The little girl jumped.

"You can see me?" She asked in shock.

"Yeah." She gave her a bitter smile. "I died today as well. So I guess we both share death days. I wonder if dead people celebrate those."

The little girl laughed. "You're terrible. I shouldn't laugh at that, but I can't help it. All my life I was preparing to die, but once you're dead… it feels so… different." She offered a hand. "My name is Vicki. What's yours?"

"Clara. Nice to meet you."

"So… How did you die?" She asked.

"I don't really know. It just happened so fast. The last moments when I was alive, I quickly said good bye to my gran." She answered.

"Oh. I said good bye to my parents every time I was in the hospital. I've had bone cancer since I was four."

"I'm sorry for your death." Clara said, after a pause. She was too young. Vicki gave a small smile.

"I'm sorry for yours too." She eyed on her parents leaving the room. "Well, I better follow my parents home. Hopefully see you later. Pleasure talking to you." She waved, and Clara waved back.

Clara wanted to go home as well. She walked down the stairs, out of the hospital and back home. She laid on the bed and slept (did ghosts sleep?) till the next morning. When she woke up, she looked through all her framed photos. The memories of the past. She couldn't have any of that anymore.

"Clara." She jumped and dropped a picture frame. It was the Doctor.

The Doctor trudged up to the picture frame and placed it on the right place.

"Can you see me?" She asked.

"I wish you could come back. I need you to come back." He was crying. He obviously couldn't. "Whoever killed you, I am going to find them. I'm going to make sure that they pay." He clenched the fist in anger.

"What do you mean who killed me? No one killed me, I just died… that's all."

"They decided to have your funeral at the school. I couldn't bear myself to go." He wiped his tears. "Talking to a flat. That's a new low for me."

Clara hovered her hands over his face. She wished she could wipe the tears off him. He never showed any emotion to her. It broke her  **hear** t seeing the Doctor in such a mess.

Coal Hill High School

Clara sat through the whole ceremony. Everyone was so sad. Clara was so touched that everyone had appreciated her for what she did. She listened to every eulogy, every story, everything they wanted to say about her. She appreciated all the people for what they've done to her funeral. When her coffin was moved to the hearse, she sat next to it, trying to peek inside. It wasn't even her body, but no one here would tell the difference anyway. She wondered what was actually happening to her body. It felt weird to feel the sticky, cold liquid on her, even though she was just a ghost. Every now and then, there was a slight tap on her arms, or legs, but mostly, she was just freezing cold.

Her coffin was lowered to the grave, and everyone had left. From afar, she saw a familiar face holding a… water can?

"I'm going to get you back, no matter it takes." The Doctor said. "I'm not losing anyone else."

"Doctor, just let me go. My death is destroying you. You have to keep soldiering on, for  **me**." She said, her hand on his cheeks.

He sprayed the green liquid all over her dirt covered grave, and did the same for her mother's grave.

"What is that?" Clara questioned. She was getting used to being ignored now. This was her new life. Instead of a participant, she was now a spectator of the world.

"Miss Oswald, on my word, I will bring your daughter back to the world. I'll figure out a way." He talked to Ellie's grave.

He sadly trudged back to his TARDIS with the empty watering can.

Clara stayed in front of the grave, and saw a little bud sprouting from her grave.

oOoOoOoOoOoooOoOoOo

Doctor's POV

"I need you to be precise and detailed. What happened to her, and how did she die **?** "

"It was a mystery, but every organ in her body started to die. We tried putting her on life support, but that made the reaction even quicker. Every step to intervene, made her condition worse. At the end, her heart gave out and we lost her."

"Were there any traces of illnesses or drugs?" The Doctor asked.

"Well, no." Doctor Lanzou answered. "Except her respiratory system. It was laced with a very thin layer of some kind of radioactive material."

"What?" The Doctor said, confused.

"Well, it might be nothing, but that was the only thing abnormal we've found. It happens to people who had lots of x rays or chemotherapies. It's very common among patients, but the records showed that she hasn't had an x-ray since she was seven, which makes the radiation even more unexplainable.

"Right, thank you, doctor. That's all I needed from you." He looked at his watch. '8 minutes.' He said to himself. He ran to the morgue and showed the scientist his psychic paper.

"Hi, I'm here to see the body of Clara Oswald."

The young man checked his credentials and led her to Clara.

"Right, Clara Oswald's body is here." His heart almost dropped. Seeing the white sheet that covered a form of body… a body of someone who he dearly loved.

As he walked in, he felt goose bumps forming on his skin. He felt a surge of sadness.

"Right. Can you give me a moment?"

"Yeah sure thing. Tell me before you leave, sir." The young man said and exited the room.

"Hello Clara." The Doctor softly cooed. He pulled the sheet down to see her face. Seeing her pale face, and her closed eyes, made him tear up. That was his best friend lying there dead.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there for you. I had… no idea." He said, choking in tears. He knew he could just do what he needed to do, but felt a responsibility of telling the body as a form of politeness.

"And I know I should be leaving you to rest, but I apologise for what I'm going to do. There's something I must do." He unlocked the wheels of the table with her body and started wheeling it out. The Doctor wheeled it into the TARDIS, into a freezer room. He opened a coffin-like capsule he had designed with a sonic screwdriver. He gently placed her inside, plucked a hair out, took the toe tag and closed the door. The capsule filled up with some sort of oily liquid.

"Now, for my next trick." He placed a strand of Clara's hair inside a machine. In a matter of seconds, another body appeared that looked exactly like her. A clone version of the body. His tiny hope disappeared when a lifeless body formed inside the machine. Of course, if you clone a dead person, the clone copy would be dead too.

"If only this could bring you back to life as well." He said in sorrow. He placed the dummy body on the table, placed a toe tag on the dummy and wheeled it back to where she was.

He walked back to his TARDIS and set things in motion. He couldn't bare going back to the freezer room to see her dead body preserved in the capsule.

'Destination: UNIT base.' The screen said.

When opened the TARDIS doors, he was greeted with soldiers with guns aimed at him.

"Sorry, Doctor. I told them to stand down, but they were ever so excited." Kate said and gave him a big hug. "You say you don't like hugs, but you don't get a vote on that." She broke away from the hug. "So… what brings you here?" Kate's smiles were quickly changed to a frown.

"You have to help me." He said softly.

"Soldiers, dismissed." Kate quickly said. The Doctor was grateful for that. Kate was so good at reading people, just like her dad always was.

"Doctor, what's wrong?" She approached him slowly. The Doctor was breaking down in tears. This was never the case for this regeneration cycle. If he was breaking down, it meant something was very wrong.

"Clara." He choked the words out.

"Oh my lord." She covered her mouth. "What happened?"

He took her to the freezing room and showed her the body of Clara inside the capsule. She looked like she was asleep. He wished she was asleep. He wheeled the coffin-like capsule out to the UNIT base.

"Inside this capsule, her cells die in a slower rate, almost locking her in that state permanently. She was declared dead for about 10 minutes before I placed her inside, so whatever is wrong with her, the evidence will still be present. I couldn't… bear to do it… myself. I see her, and all I see is my wrongdoings. No autopsy will be needed as it will provide you with the accurate representation of her insides using a hologram shell." He paused. "You have to find what killed her." He whispered in sadness. "Please." He begged.

"Doctor, we will do whatever we can to help you. I'll get my best men and women on this. You have my word." She promised.

"Thank you." He left the base and dematerialised the TARDIS.

There was a message left on the answering machine. "Doctor, it's me, Clara's gran. Just letting you know that Clara's funeral is going to be held today at Coal Hill high school. If you don't want to come, that's absolutely fine." They were moving so fast. How could they just let go?

He parked the TARDIS outside Clara's flat. He breathed out before opening the doors to her flat. It was clean and organised, just as he saw it the last time.

"Clara." He talked to the flat, just as if he was talking to her. A photo frame fell on the ground. It was a picture of her with him. 'Must have been the wind.' He thought.

The Doctor trudged up to the picture frame and placed it on the right place. He continued.

"I wish you could come back. I need you to come back." He didn't realise he was crying. But realised that he was after touching his wet cheeks. "Whoever killed you, I am going to find them. I'm going to make sure that they pay." He clenched the fist in anger. He denied believing that she died from a natural death. No. It definitely wasn't a natural death. He was sure of it.

"They decided to have your funeral at the school. I couldn't bear myself to go." He wiped his tears. "Talking to a flat. That's a new low for me."

He felt a message arriving in his psychic paper.

"Doctor, I need to speak to you. –Kate"

As soon as he arrived, Kate handed him a sheet of paper with data.

"Did she get attacked while she was travelling with you?" Kate asked.

He read the results. "But that's impossible!" He said.

"The hospitals wouldn't have been able to pick it up. But I believe this is poison. Poison of alien origins." Kate sighed.

"It's a substance called Polovox. This substance doesn't come into contact with the human race until the 87th century. This can't be here." He frowned.

"I'm looking at you, Doctor. There's a high chance that you might have taken her to a place somewhere with… Polovox poison or whatever it was."

"No. See this?" He circled a part of a graph. "This is only emitted when there is primary contact with the substance. I can assure you she didn't touch a pure Polovox crystal by accident. This makes sense now. They said she had a complete organ failure in three days. A healthy, young human, dead in three days even with complete medical support. I need you to trace Clara's steps that day and see if there's any sign of the substance."

"What does it mean if we find this substance out in the open?" Kate asked with fear.

"It means you are being invaded by one of the most dangerous beings in the universe. If you find even a trace of that particle, you have to shut the whole street down." He sighed. He sat down in total despair. It was becoming evident that Clara had been murdered, in the cruellest way possible. He knew what Polovox poison did to any organic lifeforms. She would have been in so much pain. It hurt him so much to realise the truth.

"Doctor. If you need anything else, you know where to find me." Kate said, trying to soothe his grief.

"I don't know what I'll do without you." He said, wearily.

When he had arrived in Coal Hill high school, the hearse had already driven off. He knew the destination of the hearse though. He moved to the cemetery, where the coffin was slowly being brought uphill to a freshly dug grave. When the grave had been filled and everyone gone, He brought a watering can filled with green liquid. He stood in front of her grave.

"Clara Oswald, beloved daughter and teacher."

Next to it, there was another grave.

"Ellie Oswald, beloved wife and mother."

"I'm going to get you back, no matter it takes." He said. "I'm not losing anyone else."

He sprayed the green liquid all over her dirt covered grave, and did the same for her mother's as well.

"Miss Oswald, on my word, I will bring your daughter back to the world. I'll figure out a way." He talked to Ellie's grave.

He sadly trudged back to his TARDIS with the empty watering can. By the next day, the bare dirt ground will become a flowerbed, and her bare grave won't be bare anymore.


	4. The Green Crystal

**Clara**  was sitting on the cemetery bench. She didn't want to leave her grave yet. She just wanted to see how quiet it was, compared to everything else. Then, the silence was interrupted by a crying noise on the other side of the cemetery. She looked to see another funeral in progress. The curiosity forced her to check who it was.

"Clara? What are you doing here?" There was a girl lonelily sitting on an empty chair.

"Vicki?" What a coincidence, her grave was not far off her grave. "They just had my funeral." She said, pointing to where her grave was.

"Oh, how did that go?"

"It was sad, but it was heart-warming to see that everyone cared for me." She smiled with sadness. "How's yours going?"

"Oh, you know. Lots of crying and sadness, just like yours. I'm glad that everyone is letting go though, I don't want everyone to be sad because of me. I was told that I can go by the end of the funeral."

"Go where? Told by whom?" Clara asked, confused.

"Well, according to someone in my head, this world is just a stepping stone to the next. They didn't tell me what the next life was going to be like, but they said you're allowed to go there when everyone lets you go from their life." She smiled.

"Well, I'm sort of offended that no one's told me that yet." Clara pouted.

"Your time will come soon." She chuckled. They turned around to see the grave lowered into the ground and covered up. "Well, I think that's my lift." She said, pointing at her gravestone. "The voice said to step into the light when you find it. Good bye Clara." Vicki stood up and let herself be consumed by the bright light.

When Clara gazed at Vicki's gravestone, she saw no light. She only saw Vicki's body fading away.

She was yet again so alone. Being a ghost was terrible.

Clara sat back down on the bench, overlooking her mother's and her grave. When she woke up, it was already dark. In the gently lit streetlights, she saw a hooded man walking up the hill. She was suddenly alert. The man, holding something, stopped in front of her grave. Clara's eyes widened when she realised what it was. It was a shovel.

"No, no, no. What do you think you're doing?!" Clara yelled.

The man started shovelling all the dirt away. Clara felt extremely violated. It was her grave he was digging. Even though her body wasn't technically there, it was still very insensitive and rude. She looked directly at his face and gasped.

" **It's**  you."

It was  **the**  alien that punched her few days before she died. The spoonhead like face with two glowing eyes and a mouth hole in the middle. It was digging her grave. Suddenly, everything clicked together.

"The green crystal. That was you. I was fine before you came along. You murdered me!" She trembled in anger. That thing, whatever it was, took away everything she had in life. The  **Doctor** , her whole family, her life. There was nothing stopping her now. She charged, but went straight through him **.**

She screamed in anger. "I hate being a ghost!" She was truly becoming so emotional, perhaps more than she was ever used to when she was alive. But she wasn't alive now, so it was a completely different story.

"Stop digging. Now." She yelled. The alien stopped, and turned its head around momentarily. He quickly turned to the ground again and dug even faster than before. Clara charged at the alien and this time, she knocked him to the ground. She punched it, over and over, until her ghost-like properties returned again.

The alien stood back up with no problem, dug around the grave and opened the coffin. Clara's 'corpse' laid there. The sight of herself (or, her clone self) made Clara sadder.

The alien lifted her corpse, and vaporised into thin air.

Clara started crying. She was useless as a ghost. Why would an alien need her body? She was glad that it wasn't her real body, but still felt extremely violated for what just happened.

"Clara, don't cry." A gentle hand patted her back with empathy. She turned around to see a face she was not expecting.

"Mum."

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Unit base

"I don't understand. I thought it was his MO that he never looks at endings." Sam, the forensic said, gazing at Clara's corpse inside the capsule. "Why isn't he moving on this time?"

"Mr Konjak, do you know about the three hour rule?" Kate asked.

Sam shook his head. "Should I? Oh no, was this in the manuals?" He said, panicked.

Kate chuckled. "No, it's not." She continued. "It's a myth that says that with enough opportunity, one can bring the person back from the dead, so long as they have been dead for less than three hours. He's preserved the body in the perfect state for this rule to apply and it would be foolish to think that he is not out and about trying to find the truth to this myth."

Kate looked at Clara's empty face. "She was the first face that face ever saw." She gave a bitter smile. "And he thinks he can reason with the universe this time. Reason with it to bring his dear friend back."

Kate picked up the chart of data gathered from Clara's corpse. "So, anything new that I should know?"

"Well, we found some sort of metallic substance on the surface of her jaw. The interesting thing is, it's a mix of circuitry and proteins. I've never seen it before. I would shoot far and say that it was an …." Kate heard a gasp and then silence.

Kate clenched her jaw.

"Please don't aim the gun at Mr Konjak. I'm guessing you are here for something more important than him." She turned around to greet an alien, who was aiming the gun at Sam's head.

"Clara Oswald. Where is the body?" The metallic grinding voice churned out like a recording on a radio.

"Over my dead body." Kate gave it a fierce look as she stood in front of Clara's capsule.

"Granted." It said and fired the gun. A green crystal touched Kate and dispersed into fine particles.

"Is this how you placed your Polovox poison into her?" Kate said, quickly masking her mouth. She knew it was too late, but she would be damned if she didn't go down fighting. "Clara didn't deserve this. She was a good person. Why are you doing this?"

"She was compatible. Yet she was proven to be useless."

"Useless?! No. No living beings are useless. They all have a purpose. No matter how bad or good the choices might be, they all have a purpose, to live." Kate muttered in anger. It was something her father had said to her when she was only a child.

"You only have one purpose now. To die." It said as it released Sam. It lifted the capsule and walked out.

"Kate… I mean ma'am. Are you alright?" Sam quickly took her pulse. Thank god all UNIT agents were trained in first aid.

"Call the Doctor, NOW." Kate said, trying to fight off the sleepiness.


	5. The Holes in Our Lives

"Ma'am, please, you have to rest." McGillop said through the speaker that connected the outside world to the quarantined room. By Kate's orders, both Sam and Kate were locked in the quarantined room, just in case Polovox poison turned out to be infectious.

"No,  **I**  need to finish off my work before time runs out. Now leave me alone, McGillop, go fiddle around with Konjak." She said, madly scribbling things down on the paper.

McGillop sighed. Once his boss was determined to do something, they could never stop her. She was probably writing a 20 year plan of running the UNIT base, and maybe a lot of threats for her successors if they didn't obey her values. He gave up trying to persuade her and went to the next quarantined room.

"I swear, it didn't do anything to me." S **am**  complained. "I really hate needles." He flinched as soldiers in biohazard suits took all sorts of tests.

"Just keep breathing into the tube. You were close enough to the poison, so we can't take any chances."

Sam gave him an annoyed look and breathed into the tube connected to a measuring machine.

McGillop felt like tearing his hair out. After his good mate, Osgood, died in a car crash (at least that's what they told him anyway) he became the one who had to support Kate with her tremendous amount of work. He had been promoted to the role after the incident at the gallery, with three Doctors and weird sucker things…. He still didn't understand what happened, but apparently he was fit enough for a promotion. He didn't even get time to mourn Osgood's death, or his friends who were UNIT soldiers who were also involved in a 'car crash' because he was now responsible for assisting most of Kate's work. Now Kate was quarantined, and he was the one who had to deal with everything. He felt like he wasn't ready.

Then, he saw the blue box materialise in the middle of his perfectly organised room. The man who walked out was not any of the ones he had seen back in the gallery.

"KATE?!"

Why was he Scottish? And his eyebrows, they were furious.

"Where's Kate?! I need to see her now." He demanded. McGillop flinched and took him to the quarantined room.

"No wonder she's sick. You've couped her into a tiny glass room." He accused him. He took his sonic screwdriver out.

"Well… she told us to… Wait, you can't open the door!" The Doctor quickly entered the room and locked it. He knew this was the trait of this regeneration, but seeing it himself was even worse than hearing about it.

"Doctor, please come out, right now!" McGillop said through the speaker.

"Had enough of him." He pointed the screwdriver at the speaker and the connection to the outside world was disconnected.

"Doctor, McGillop has had a tough day, you could have at least given him a break." Kate chuckled.

The Doctor ignored the last statement. "So, anything yet?" He frowned. "Are you okay? Tell me how exactly you're feeling."

"I'm slightly drowsy, but other than that, I'm fine." She dismissed his worry. She took out a folder with photos and stills of the CCTV. "You asked me to trace Clara's steps. Luckily, we found no traces of any Polovox substance in any of the places she's been to." She took another photo out. "Also, we know who the culprit is. After it left us, it left a small cog, which registered as a biological substance instead of an object. The same metallic DNA was also found in Clara's bruise on her jaw."

The Doctor looked at the photo with concern. He scanned Kate from top to bottom with his sonic screwdriver.

"Kate, are you feeling alright?"

"I told you, I'm fine."

"I don't think you are." He gently pushed the photograph of the alien in front of her.

"Look closely and tell me what you see again."

"The face of the alien. He was the one who attacked me." Kate said. "Why, what do you see?" She asked hesitantly.

He sighed. "You see, one of the properties of the Polovox poison is hallucination. It will show you things that aren't there and things you want to see." He pointed at the picture. "This is the picture of your father, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. I'm really sorry, the effects are spreading already."

Kate stared at it again, and sure enough, her father's face was grinning back at her. She gasped in shock.

The Doctor touched Kate's cheek.

"You're very warm." He said, frowning. "I know you are too scared to sleep, and I would be too, but fighting the poison will make it worse." He patted her shoulder, trying to calm her down.

"And how should I know if I am still hallucinating, what if you aren't real as well?" She said, using her critical point of view.

The Doctor paused. He took off the ring he was wearing, which broke into halves. "When each of the rings touch each other, the ring will warm up and pulse gently in your fingers. You can hallucinate vision, but you can't hallucinate your touch senses. Before we talk, we will  **always**  make sure it is really me, okay?" he said as he placed one half of the ring on her finger. When he held Kate's hand, it warmed up and pulsed, just as he said.

"Okay." She smiled. "I trust you. With all my life."

"Now sleep." He said. "Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, you are dismissed of your duty. Doctor's orders."

Kate closed her eyes and let the darkness take over her.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Clara's POV

_"Mum."_

"My baby. You've grown so much." They were hugging and crying. Clara couldn't remember the last time she hugged her. The warm feeling was still the same though. "I always thought it would be your gran first, then your dad, and I hoped I could see you much later than I would see them."

Listening to her mother's soothing yet disappointed voice made her sad. She had disappointed her mother. "I'm sorry mum, it happened so fast." Drops of tears dropped onto Ellie's shoulder.

"It's okay, it wasn't your fault." She stroked her back.

"Mum, is it true?" Clara said, after breaking from the hug.

"Hmm? What's true?"

"That if everyone lets go, you are allowed to leave this world."

"I heard about that too. But I don't know." She said. "Because I haven't let go of the world." Ellie smiled. "I couldn't let go, when I had you guys making a racket with each other." She chuckled.

"First time you went to drink. You put it off to when you were 20. I was so proud of you for leaving it for so long."

Clara's eyes widened. She was t **here**! She covered her face in shame.

"… and then you messed it up by drinking like an animal." She teasingly punched her. "You and your friends got on the car, but you got caught by the cops even before they could step on the gas pedal, didn't you?" Ellie laughed.

"That was you?!" She gasped. "Oh my god, mum, thank you. And I'm so sorry  **for**  whatever I might have said that night."

"You were quite amazing when you were drunk." She sarcastically nodded. "And by amazing, amusing." She continued. "Also that time when your dad bought a bicycle by impulse. I made sure that he bought the cheap knockoff that wouldn't even start."

They laughed together.

"Mum, thank you for looking after us." Clara kissed her on the cheek. "And I'm sorry for whatever mistakes I made."

"Anything for my family. I couldn't be there for you, it was the least I could do." Ellie said.

"Does that mean you know about the Doc..?" Clara started coughing. "I can't breathe."

"Clara, you are dead. You don't need to breathe." Ellie said, reminding her. "What's wrong?"

"I… I… can feel…. something in my… throat." All of a sudden it was so hard to speak.

Ellie looked at Clara's grave.

"Tell me, was the body that… thing stole, yours?"

Clara shook her head, tearing up from the pain. "Thought not." Ellie said.

"Clara, listen to me. Close your eyes and imagine you are breathing in and out. Sense the place  **you**  are in. Describe me the smell, the sound and touch in detail." Ellie said. "Whoever it is, they are doing something to your original body. We are all tied to our bodies. If something happens to them, you would feel it as well. We have to get to your body. Now, do it."

Clara closed her eyes and concentrated.

"I feel exposed. There's a hard flat surface underneath me…" She clutched onto her chest. "I feel needles everywhere. The smell, it smells like…. Damp… like we're underground."

"Hey, leave my friend alone…" It was almost a whisper, but Clara recognised the thick, Scottish voice. There were all sorts of noises and then her throat finally freed up and she could breathe again. Hang on… breathe?

"Mum…."

"I know, I can hear it." Ellie interrupted. "Your heart is beating again **.** "


	6. The Grave Robbery

Kate woke up, flinching in pain. She was in a completely different place. High tech monitors reading every signal in her body. She groaned as pain shot up her body.

"Hey." The Doctor said, as he squeezed her hand, the ring pulsed, and Kate knew it was the Doctor.

"What happened to the quarantine room?"

"I have higher authority than you. Apparently I still hold rights as the president of Earth." He added later. "And no one in the base wanted you to suffer alone."

"I should fire everyone for breaking the rules." She weakly chuckled.

"Yeah, everyone including me." He sarcastically added, chuckling with her.

"I've already had liver failure?" She said as she reached for her files and started reading it.

"…and kidney. So far, your symptoms are exactly like the ones Clara had."

"Doctor, I have to tell you something… "

"That you lost Clara's body?" He smiled. "I know, it's okay. That means my plan is working."

"… what?" Kate raised an eyebrow, confused. That was not the reaction she was expecting from the Doctor.

"That capsule is built with a GPS alert. It will give me a signal on where they are if the capsule is opened or disturbed. We will be able to find where Clara is." He said.

His expression suddenly changed. "Then, I can find whoever did this to her, and you. They will learn that if they hurt my friends I will hurt them back." Kate knew his fierce face. The face often referred to as the Oncoming Storm.

His expression then returned to a happy one.

"…anyway, you shouldn't worry about her, or me. You should worry about yourself. If you feel any different, you have to tell me. Okay?" He gave a small squeeze. The ring pulsed even stronger than before. "Brave heart Kate." He winked. Kate smiled as she closed her eyes.

The Doctor stayed there until she fell asleep. She was so much like the Brig. Such a fighter, yet with so much compassion. He sighed and left the room.

"Doctor, will she be okay?" It was McGillop.

He turned around, seeing her asleep. "No. She will be brilliant." He lied. But he knew that McGillop already knew the truth.

The Doctor skipped to the next day and landed near Clara's cemetery. He took a bouquet of flowers and walked up to her grave. He wanted to see how the flowerbed was progressing.

From afar, he could see a few police officers standing around, with the area taped. He ran up to see what was going on. He saw Dave and Clara's gran sat on the bench, devastated by the sight.

"What happened?!" He asked in shock.

"Grave robbery. Some bloody insensitive, selfish idiots robbed Clara's grave." Dave yelled in anger. "If I find whoever did this…"

"Dave, calm down.  **I'm**  pretty sure Clara wouldn't have wanted this. She never agreed to violence, remember?" Clara's gran said, tearfully.

"No, Clara would have wanted revenge."

"No, Dave, your mother is right. Clara would never want you to kill someone in her name. Just let me handle it." The Doctor said. "I have friends in the military. They handle cases like… grave robberies. I'll get them onto this as soon as I can."

"Fine." Dave angrily muttered. He aggressively breathed in and out trying to calm himself. That was his daughter for  **go** d's sake! Why did the grave robbers have to choose hers out of so many in the cemetery?! He was still furious, but after what the Doctor said, he managed to calm down a little.

The Doctor stood in fury as well. Someth **ing**  in his brain finally clicked together. 'Whoever they were, they must have tried  **to**  find Clara's body in the grave, then failed to do so. They probably scanned the DNA from the dummy body and found the real Clara in the UNIT base and taken her somewhere. But what for? Why would they need a dead body?' He questioned himself. Whoever they were, they had no right to treat his best friend's body and her family like this. The Doctor's clenched fist trembled in anger. Whoever did this will pay, no matter what. There were no second chances for them now, they'd already killed his best friend and then humiliate him more by taking away the last remains. That was already a strike two.

"Doctor." The Doctor turned around to see Clara's gran's  **sa** d eyes. "Promise me you'll find whoe **ve** r did this." She sniffled. "She never deserved this. She was a good person."

The Doctor nodded sadly. "I promise. I would never let someone get away after hurting my friend."

"Thank you." She whispered.

The Doctor walked into the TARDIS and calmly closed the door. He walked up to the console and hit it over and over until his knuckles started bleeding. He collapsed on the side of the console, breaking down. Why did everyone close to him got hurt?

Suddenly, there was a ping. He slowly stood up to see the location. The GPS tracker on Clara's capsule had finally turned itself on. He remembered what he said to Clara when she was breaking down.

He sniffled. "This is it. The darkest day. The blackest hour. Chin up, shoulders back. Let's see what we're made of,  **you**  and I **.** " It sounded so empty without her. She always filled the TARDIS up with all her bright, bubbly personality and sassiness. Clara was dead, but he hoped he could fix that.

He pulled the lever and the TARDIS landed with a thud. The Oncoming storm was brewing.

When he opened the TARDIS, he was greeted with a damp underpass. It was a dark, unused tunnel that was once used for pedestrians. But judging by the state of it, it had passed its usefulness. He scanned the area with the screwdriver, and carefully walked into the scary tunnel.

There was a metal door that was shut close by extra-terrestrial lock.

He fiddled with the frequency, and heard the lock open with a click. "Gotcha."

The sound of his boots on the steel stairs leading downstairs bounced all through the large basement. Of course, the tunnel had been built there to lead them to the underground train station. However, complications probably arose stopping the government from opening it to the public. Now, it was an underground base station, or a hiding ground for deadly alien murderers.

The Doctor heard a hiss and then a squelch. His Time Lord ears picked up on a small electricity current zapping something. When he turned away from the stairs, he saw Clara's body in the middle, connected with blood bags from god knows where.

"Hey, leave my friend alone!" The Doctor growled. He could clearly see that they did not grasp the concept of human biology. There were tubes with wrong types of blood connected in wrong places, some missing the vein, some too close to her vital organs… They were damaging Clara's body – they had no idea what they were doing. He approached her body and pulled a long tube from her mouth. That was a breathing tube… god knows where they got it from, but they had stuffed it through to her stomach. It wasn't even remotely close. He grabbed onto the needles in the wrong place and pulled them out, which sprayed the blood all over the floor. He was pulling needles out of his best friend's dead body. Seeing her body in a state like this even worsened the Time Lord's mood.

Inside his mind, his hopes shattered into million pieces. He thought, them having access to the Polovox poison, they might have been advanced enough to bring her back. She had been only technically been dead for 10 minutes or less, and he wholeheartedly believed that there were some truth to the three hour myth. But seeing their lack of knowledge, he knew that wasn't possible. He grabbed onto her wrist, trying to pull the rest of the tubes out. Even if they were placed correctly, she was already dead, there was nothing they could do to stop her from being dead.

Suddenly, the Doctor froze. It was weak, but he felt a small pulse in Clara's wrist. He touched Clara's face. She was warm!

He brought his ears closer to her mouth to see if she was breathing. He flinched back as she coughed.

She was alive.

The aliens, who had receded to the corner of the room garbled excitedly in what seemed like gibberish. Either it was a language he has never heard of before, or they were too far from the future for him to understand their concept of language.

"You were… trying to save her?" He asked.

With a little pause, he heard a deep metallic voice like one in a bad quality recording. "Yes. She is now useful."

"Useful for what?" He asked, frowning.

"Incubating an antitoxin for Polovox poison."

The Doctor saw a little military symbol inscribed on their body. They were droids!

"State your intention on earth." He demanded. He realised they weren't sentient forms, just military droids of the 87th century programmed to do its job.

"We are the Navdroids from the 87th century. Polinian race of Hunod – 7 has created a biological weapon containing a toxin called Polovox. 4 Navdroids have been sent to various timelines of various life forms to find an organic lifeform that can survive the poison. We have finally found a human compatible for this purpose."

"No, Clara wasn't compatible for your purpose. You killed her in the process." He said, emptily. "Even if you can create an antitoxin from her empty body, you wouldn't know if the antitoxin is toxic to other bodies as well… because you're trying to experiment on a dead body." Their quest killed his best friend for nothing… and another was dying as they were speaking right now. "Okay, I can understand why you're doing this. It's what you're programmed to do.  **I**  know that. But what I don't understand is why you attacked Kate. She did nothing wrong, she was only trying to  **pro** tect Clara's body, for me." He said in anger.

"She was protecting our asset from us. We recognised her as the enemy soldier. Time is running out for all Navbots. We have been in this quest for seven thousand years."

"Seven thousand?! Blimey, how are you still functional? Even 87th century drones can't last more than one thousand years without being tended."

"We absorb unimportant organic lifeforms such rodents and pests. We are programmed to cause the least damage to the ecosystems of the planet."

"And yet, you killed one human and another who will die in a few days." The Doctor's eyes returned to Clara's breathing body. He scanned her to see that everything was functional, except her brain. She was basically an empty shell, forced to live through the 87th century life support.

"Why was she compatible?" He asked in sadness. "Tell me why. Out of the 7 billion people on earth, why was she the only one compatible?"

"Clara Oswald is the forty seventh subject. The subjects are chosen by their levels of background radiation. Experiments were once conducted in humane conditions that did not alter their ability to function, nor noticed by the subjects. After forty six failed experiments, the safety protocol was overridden. Clara Oswald is the first subject of the overridden protocol." The Doctor closed his eyes. forty seven… He froze. The amount of companions he has had in the TARDIS. Forty seven people who have travelled in the TARDIS and gathered harmless background radiation.

Another drone stepped up. "The newly planned extracting of the subject was initially planned to be conducted without the subject's knowledge,  **mi** nimising the suffering. However, due to malfunctions, the subject located the operation drone before the mission. With limiting human knowledge, the drone tried to shut the subject down with the method of punching, however failed to do so. Information was gathered from a dummy body in the grave, and the subject's real body from Unified Intelligent Taskforce was brought back to the main hub."

"Fellow robots, I'm sorry to inform you that she won't be of much use to you. She is  _dead_." He felt pain saying that. He had so much hope, and it was shattered. Now all he had was an empty breathing shell. "The only reason she is alive is because of your machinery. Once humans are dead, their brain, which is something like your hard drive, permanently switches off. She will be useless to you now. Plea **se** , she was my friend, my best friend. Please let her go. I would like her to rest in peace." The Doctor pleaded.

"Request: Denied. The subject will now be tested with the sample of the Polovox toxin."

A drone walked up to Clara's body.

"No, don't you dare!" He screamed. Before he could stop the drone, another drone locked his arms together. He cried out in pain. He felt both of his shoulder dislocating from the strength the drone held him.

"You don't handle humanoid lifeforms like that!" He yelled in pain and annoyance. The strength of the drone decreased, but it still held tight onto the Doctor's wrists.

He saw a sticky green liquid being injected into one of the tubes. His eyes followed the tube until it disappeared under Clara's skin.

Clara's breathing became short and shallow, her heart rate increased and her body twisted, trying to break free from the chemical.

"I'm sorry Clara, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." He repeated the words. He was somehow glad that she was already brain dead, as he would have hated to see her in so much pain. He had heard that this substance was used to interrogate prisoners with valuable information in the Dalek concentration camps, which didn't really end well for the prisoners as they always ended up dead.

Even with the life support, the poison killed her in less than two minutes. Seeing her dead body being used like that broke his hearts. He groaned at the pain from his dislocated shoulders; if it wasn't for the pain, he would have tried making a run for it, to take the drones down.

A drone approached Clara's lifeless body again. A spark jumped from the drone to Clara, and her empty life was restarted again.

"No!" He was so shocked that it came out as a breathless whisper.

He saw his best friend be killed from the toxin and brought back to life five… six… twenty… he had lost count. He didn't know how long had passed, but it felt almost like his twelve lifetimes, seeing dead Clara brought back to life over and over again to be killed again and again with robotic precision. By the end of it, he was looking away in despair. The mere sight ripped him into shreds. If he had a soul in the first place, it was now definitely gone.

"Subject forty seven, declared failed." The voice said.

"Please… let us go." He pleaded for the last time. His voice was hoarse from screaming and pleading with the drones.

"Granted." The drones ungrasped his wrist. The Doctor grimaced and popped his shoulders back into place. He laid on the black, grimy floor in temporary relief.

"Polinian law states that you have seen too much confidential matters. Solution: execution."

He backed away. "No, no. I've done nothing wrong, please go away. Just let us go."

The robot shot a green crystal on his face, which exploded into vapour in contact.

"Execution completed." The drones disappeared through a teleporter beam.

The Doctor could feel the toxin slowly corrupting his blood. He gazed at the watch.

"I have three days left."


	7. The Doctor's Grand Plan

Clara's POV

_"Clara, listen to me. Close your eyes and imagine you are breathing in and out. Sense the place you are in. Describe me the smell, the sound and touch in detail." Ellie said. "Whoever it is, they are doing something to your original body. We are all tied to our bodies. If something happens to them, you would feel it as well. We have to get to your body. Now, do it."_

_Clara closed her eyes and concentrated._

_"I feel exposed. There's a hard flat surface underneath me…" She clutched onto her chest. "I feel needles everywhere. The smell, it smells like…. Damp… like we're underground."_

_"Hey, leave my friend alone…" It was almost a whisper, but Clara recognised the thick, Scottish voice. There were all sorts of noises and then her throat finally freed up and she could breathe again. Hang on… breathe?_

_"Mum…."_

_"I know, I can hear it." Ellie interrupted. "Your heart is beating again."_

"Why does it hurt so much? Being alive… Heart beating and being able to breathe… it just hurts so much." Clara said clutching her chest, wheezing.

"Well, when you're alive, and you're dying, your body goes in shock. You feel pain. I imagine it's the same thing reversed as well. If you're dead and you're brought back to life, you're going to feel pain." Ellie held onto her shoulders. "Clara, embrace your pain, welcome your life back into you. This never happens. Whatever they are doing to you, you are being brought back to the real world."

"But what for? Why do I deserve a second chance?" Clara said, crying. "I'm done being alive. I just want to go, I just want everyone to let me go."

"Clara." Ellie gazed into her suffering daughter with her big, kind eyes. "No matter how much it hurts, life is worth fighting for. The world is full of kindness, sadness… and miracles." She hugged her tight. It pained her to see that her daughter was suffering so much. Inside her hug, Ellie felt Clara's frail, trembling body. She stroke her over and over to calm her down. "You have to fight it. For your dad, for your gran… for your Doctor."

Clara looked up with tear-filled eyes. "If I go, I won't be able to see you again."

Ellie shook her head. "No Clara, because I'll always be here, watching over you. I am and always will be your guardian angel."

Clara looked around. They were not in the cemetery anymore. They were overlooking a mountain cliff. She breathed deep, and felt the cold air rushing into her lungs. She couldn't adjust to being alive. Was life always this hard?

" **Clara** , I need you to trust me." Ellie said. "When I say so, we will jump together, okay?"

"W…What for?" She clutched her chest again and laid on the ground. The pain was terribly hard to tolerate.

"When your soul is in danger, it automatically moves you to your original body. When you jump off the cliff, you'll be putting your soul at risk, and the body will automatically move you to a safe place. You need to get to your body, and take control of it. Breathe your life into it."

"No, then what about you? What will happen to you?" No way was Clara going to leave her mum, after all these years.

"I will go back to my original body as well. Back in the cemetery." She smiled.

"Please, I want you to stay. I want to be with you, mummy." 'Mummy.' She hasn't used that term for ages. It just sounded so sincere.

Ellie gave a sad smile. "Clara,  **it's**  about time you let go of me too. I died a long time ago. It's almost been a whole decade. There's no stopping it, there's no going back. But you, you have a chance. A second chance to live on. Don't do it for you, do it for everyone you care of back home. All the people who were so sad in your funeral." Ellie gently helped her up and they inched close to the edge of the cliff.

"Mum, I love you. I never got to say it to you before you died." Tears were streaming from Clara's face.

"It's okay Clara. I already knew. I love you too. Once you get back to the real world, please say hello to Gran and your dad for me as well, and tell your Doctor I said hi too. I'll miss you." Ellie said, tearing up as well. She gently kissed Clara's forehead. Clara hugged her, and never wanted to let go.

"In three…. Two… one…" They were freefalling, yet never let go of each other's hands. Clara stared at Ellie, and Ellie stared back at her daughter. They were consumed by the white light, and Clara found herself on a grimy floor.

Has it worked? She stood up and turned around to see her dead body on a table. Her heart shattered into million pieces. All this was for nothing! Her heart had stopped beating as well. The pain of life was gone, but so was her hope. Clara was devastated.

She froze when she saw the Doctor with the robot she had seen the day before she died.

"You(!)" She angrily whispered. She could see the pain on his pale face. "What have you done to him?!" Her fist trembled in rage.

"Subject ninety three, declared failed." The voice said.

"Please… let us go." The Doctor pleaded for the last time. His voice was hoarse from screaming and pleading with the drones.

"Doctor, what have they done to you?!" She stared, horrified. She finally noticed how terribly out of place both of his shoulders were. "Let him go!" She shouted.

"Granted." The drones ungrasped his wrist. The Doctor grimaced and popped his shoulders back into place. He laid on the black, grimy floor in temporary relief.

"Polinian law states that you have seen too much confidential matters. Solution: execution."

The Doctor backed away. "No, no. I've done  **not** hing wrong, please go away. Just let us go."

The robot shot a green crystal on his face, which exploded into vapour in contact.

"Execution completed."

"No." Clara gasped. That was the poison that had killed her. The sudden rage overtook her. She charged at the drones, hoping she could hit them like she did to one back in her grave.

However, before she could reach them, the drones disappeared through a teleporter beam.

The Doctor calmly gazed at the watch.

"I have three days left."

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

"TARDIS interface, scan my body." The Doctor said, after returning Clara's body in the freezer.

"Voice interface enabled. Scanning the Doctor's body." The hologram looked exactly like Clara. That was okay, it was currently calming him down. Dying while seeing her seemed like a good idea. He left a mental note to add it to his short bucket list, see Clara once more before he dies.

"Oh, so that's what I look like? What am I wearing?! I thought you weren't being a cow!" Clara whinged at the TARDIS. She knew no one could hear her, so she just sat down on the chair on the top floor of the console room in annoyance.

"Scan completed. Your body is contaminated with Polovox toxin. Regeneration is disabled. You will die in 7 days, 15 hours, 4 minutes and 23 seconds."

"Seven days. Better than three. Worse than eight." Clara sighed. She remembered the pain she had felt in the hospital. The Doctor was going suffer through all that. She stared emptily at the console room. He was going to be in so much pain. The realisation horrified her.

"Thanks for being so precise. I didn't really need to know the exact time." He sarcastically said.

"You will die sometime in the near future, comprised of 7 days, 15 hours, 4 minutes and 18 seconds."

The Doctor sighed. He should fix the human damper sometime. Well, he probably didn't have time to anymore, since he was going to be dead in 7 days, 15 hours, 4 minutes… he cursed. He was becoming more like the TARDIS. Brutal and  **real** istic. He hated realistic.

"Right." He clapped. "Time for some travelling."

"TRAVELLING?! No, Doctor, time for REST!" She yelled, blocking the doorway. The Doctor straight went through her and she shivered. "Right, I'm dead. I keep forgetting." Clara shook her head.

The Doctor had landed in the Tower of London, as known as UNIT's secret headquarters.

"McGillop." He tapped the scientist's shoulder. He jumped, and let out an inhumane sound in shock.

"You bloody terrified me!" He shouted. "Kate's not doing well, you should go see her when you have a chance."

"Yeah, about that… I need to take her… and I need your permission, seeing as you are the new scientific advisor of UNIT."

"Why?... No, I don't want to know. I just know that I can trust you Doctor. Please bring my boss back… alive. We all need her."

"Of course. I'll try my best." He smiled, knowing that the plan of his might not succeed.

oOoOo

The Doctor quietly knocked the door. Kate slightly opened her eyes.

"Hey." The Doctor said.

She smiled.

"I want to take you somewhere." He coughed. It was starting. He had to get his plan going as soon as possible.

Kate started tearing up.

"No, no, Kate, don't cry." The Doctor tried to soothe her.

"I'm really sorry, but I don't remember your name." She said. "I should, I really should, It's in the grasp of my memories… but I can't do it… it just keeps slipping away like holding onto water."

"Are you my dad?" Kate said after a pause.

The Doctor froze. "No." He said, eyes closed, picturing the Brig. "He passed away a few years ago."

"Oh." Kate said, emptily.

"My name is the Doctor."

Kate laid there for a moment blankly trying to process the information.

"Kate, I want you to come with me." The Doctor broke the silence. "I NEED you to come with me. I want to save your life."

Without the Doctor's knowledge, Kate had already fallen asleep. He looked at the heart monitors and started panicking. Gradually, her heart rate was slowing down to a stop.

The Doctor quickly unhooked the body and placed it in a capsule. Kate's body instantly froze inside.

He leaned on the capsule and sank to the ground and sat there quietly. After a moment, he sprang back up. "No time to waste." He ran to the console.

He landed on a foreign planet that was just like earth. However, it was a much clear, environmentally friendlier planet, run with wind turbines and solar panels.

The Doctor sat on a lonely bench, thinking about all that has happened. The bench oversaw a clear, blue river, flowing beyond the apple-green plain. A little girl, about seven years old, sat next to him.

"You look sad." She said, scanning his face. "Have you lost someone?"

"Nah, I saved them." He said, sighing. "But I'm sad because I was told I won't be staying in this world for long."

The little girl handed him a piece of golden brown chocolate. "I'm sorry to hear that. My mum said chocolate always cheers you up. Boosts your serotonin levels in your brain. Try it." Her brilliant teal eyes stared into the Doctor's sad, old, blue eyes.

"Thanks." He said. "What's your name?" He asked, after finishing the chocolate. Seven year olds shouldn't know the word 'serotonin'.

"I'm Tiana. If you're wondering, my parents are just over there, checking the PH levels of the river. They are researching the waterways for any contamination. Just in case you are one of the kidnappers."

Ah kids, so naïve. He smiled. Hang on, contamination?

"Contamination from what?" He raised his eyebrows. To his knowledge, this planet was famous for the symbiosis between nature and technology.

"The Polovils, you know? The little kitty like things with floppy ears?" She mimicked two cat ears. "According to my mum, when they get sick, they might contaminate our source of water as well."

"Tia!" A lady in glasses ran over. "Sir, I am so sorry for my daughter, she just goes everywhere and talks to everyone. She's too curious for her own good."

"Curious is fine. Curious generates brilliant minds." He stood up, flinching slightly. The pain in his side was slowly spreading. "I'm the Doctor, nice to meet you."

"Likewise. I am Dr Alana Gatford, and that's my husband, Dr Derek Gatford, and you've met Tia already. May I ask what you are the Doctor of?"

"Intestinal parasites."

Alana raised her eyebrows. "Come on Tia, let's go help your dad catch some Polovils." She started walking off with Tiana.

"Great job Doctor, way to scare people." Clara added, rolling her eyes.

"Wait!" He froze. It suddenly clicked in his head. "Stupid, stupid Doctor. I am Doctor IDIOT!"

Tiana Gatford, She was the one. She was the founding scientist who creates the Polovox toxin. He bent down. "Tia." He gave a grin at the seven year old. He handed her a little magnifying glass. "This used to be my friend's. But I want you to have it. I think you'll become a great scientist in the future.

"Thank you, Doctor." She grinned and looked through the magnifying glass. She laughed such innocent laughs, laughs he hadn't heard in a while.

He returned to the TARDIS. Halfway through the steps to the upper floor, he lost balance and tumbled down.

"Doctor!" Clara screamed.

He laid on the floor, trying to gather himself. Everything so brilliantly spinning. He was so exhausted. Just a small, quick nap on the floor…. "NO!" He leaned on the floor and got up. "I still have business to take care of."

He pulled the lever and the TARDIS was set in motion.

"Tiana Gatford. I am going to change your life."


	8. Redemption

The next time the TARDIS door opened, the Doctor was seeing 10 years into the future. He was in the same place, overlooking a red sunset reflected on the river. He staggered up to the bench and sat down. The Doctor panted. Everything was becoming so exhausting.

“Doctor?” It was a young voice. “Oh my god, it is you.”

A tall, young teenager gave an excited smile. “It’s been ten years, yet you still look the same.” The **cl** e **ar** , te **a** l eyes glistened in the remaining warm sunlight. Tia sat down next to him.

“Every day of every week, I come here to see if you’re here.” She took out a little magnifier. It was worn out, but it still worked. “I kept it. You know? It reminded me of you. Reminded me to keep going. I worked hard and became a doctor. A Doctor of biochemistry.” She chuckled.

The Doctor weakly chuckled as well. “Congratulations. Dr Tia. So… what’s been happening?”

“I got accepted to the Scientists’ guild. That building over the river is the laboratory for my research. I’m the youngest member there!” She smiled and continued. “I’m doing a research with a team of experienced scientists to extinguish the infectious disease carried by the Polovils.” She said, showing him a picture.

“And how’s that going?”

Tia grinned madly and took out a green crystal from her bag. “This is the prototype. We fire this from a special gun, and it will vaporise on contact, sterilising the poor, little Polovils from suffering from that terrible virus.”

“Doctor! That’s the poison! The green crystal!” Clara said shocked. She could see that the Doctor’s reaction was the same as hers.

The Doctor was speechless. He didn’t expect her to have finished it so early in her timestream. “So, have you tested it for safety yet? I mean, what if it’s poisonous for other lifeforms? The effects will be catastrophic!” Yeah, the effects _were_ devastating. He was the walking proof of that.

“Well, not yet. It does have side effects on the Polovils at the moment, it exhausts them and makes them drowsy. We’re trying to fix that.” She sighed. “The ‘animal protectors’ keep interfering with our stuff… We’re not in the dark ages anymore; we don’t even test it on real Polovils, just holograms of them… but they think the ‘sterilisation’ will endanger all the Polovils altogether. Some extremists keep messing with our research, and just few months ago, they even tried to kill one of the members for it.”

“That’s terrible.” He added. “If you don’t mind **,** can I see the laboratory? I’ve never been into one before.”

“I’m not supposed to, but since you’re the one who sparked this dream, I’ll make a special exception. You should say hi to my parents, they’re in the building, working as well.” She winked.

“Come on!” She excitedly said.

The Doctor struggled out of the bench and breathed out. He was dizzy and nauseous, but he kept going.

As they arrived in front of the high tech building, Tia stopped.

“Wait.” She pointed at the open glass door. “That door is not supposed to be open during these hours.” Tia started **wa** lking towards it.

The Doctor spotted a green and red wires around the building.

 “Tia, stop!” The Doctor pounced and pulled her out just as the building was set on fire. The two were knocked out from the shockwave of the bomb.

“No!” Tia tried to go in, but the Doctor held her tight. “Let me go! My parents are inside!”

“No they’re not. That is a Spari bomb, it instantaneously combusts everything in its territory. You’re lucky you didn’t step inside the building. You would have been burnt to crisps.” The Doctor yelled.

“Just let me go! I have to try saving them!”

“Clara, it’s too late!”

Tia froze. Clara froze too.

“What did you call me?” Tia looked at the Doctor. Doctor cursed at the mistake.

“Doesn’t matter, I’m sorry for your loss, but we have to get the hell out of here! The building is going to collapse.”

 Just as they got to the other side of the river, the building collapsed with a crash. The fires of the remains sadly reflected onto Tia’s tears.

“Tia…” The Doctor tried to comfort her.

“…no, you don’t get to tal **k** to m **e**.” She backed off. “You made me kill my parents. You stay away. You stay long way away, you understand?” She ran away, breaking down.

oOoOoOoO

The Doctor returned to the TARDIS. His breath was heavier, but he wasn’t sure if it was caused by what he had just experienced or the spread of the poison. He grabbed onto the side and fell to the ground. He blacked out momentarily.

“Doctor, you have to wake up!” Clara yelled in concern. He couldn’t die here, this couldn’t be the end for him. No matter how many times Clara yelled, he laid on the floor. Suddenly he gasped, making her jolt.

“Kidneys…. They’re gone. It’s always the kidneys, they’re so unreliable. I didn’t like the colour of them anyway.” He said, leaning onto the fence.

Clara sighed in relief. He was still alive.

He tried getting up several times and failed. It was hurting him too much. He crawled downstairs, slowly and grabbed onto a cane.

“I hate canes.” He whinged as he used it to get **up.** He hobbled to the infirmary room and took the pain killers left by the TARDIS. “Thanks dear.” He said to the sentient machine. The machine softly hummed back. She was always there for him when he needed her the most.

“I know I screwed up, but I need to try again. I don’t have much time.” He said as he hobbled to the console and pressed the buttons. He pulled the lever and the TARDIS again landed somewhere with a thud.

He opened the door to find himself in one of the storage rooms of an army barrack. He walked outside to see a gold plated name: Tianna Gatford – scientific advisor. He heard a distant explosion and gunfire.

“I thought I told you to go away.” It was Tiana. She was much taller than a few minutes ago. She also had grown up, and had a hardened face, a face that had seen too much.

“I’m sorry.” He turned around to see a gun pointed at him. “I would put my hands up, but I’m afraid if I do that, I’ll lose balance.” He said, pointing at the cane.

Tiana lowered her gun and passed him a chair.

“Thanks.” He whispered and sat down. He was glad to find that it eased the pain.

 “What are you doing here, Doctor? How did you get in here in the first place?” She sat on the other side of the table.

“Why did you become an army officer?” He ignored her question.

“Because I wanted to be more than a mere biochemist. That day when I lost my parents, I figured I couldn’t continue anymore. I wanted to do something for my country. Something I can do to make my name in history.”

“And this is your idea of making your name in history?” The Doctor retorted. He hated soldiers. Except Kate. She was a scientific advisor who didn’t carry around a gun on her. She was against violence. However, Tia wasn’t.

“We are winning the war thanks to my invention.” She said, frowning. “I am saving millions of lives right now. I am going to make my name for my parents, all this… is for my parents, not for me.”

“Can you listen to yourself? This is not remembering them. This is just you trying to get your revenge!” He shouted.

“You don’t even know what it is!” She scoffed

“The Polovox toxin. Oh, I know alright.” He growled. “The Polovox poison is killing millions of people, and sooner or later, it will kill everyone on this planet. **You’re** going to murder hundreds of innocent people in your parent’s name.”

“Don’t be silly, no one of importance have died yet. Why do you care so much anyway?”

“No one of importance?! IMPORTANCE?!” He trembled in anger. “You think different people have different level of importance? That some people are more important than another? No.” He shook his head. “This is not the Tia I met. The Tiana Gatford I met was a kind, compassionate girl. A girl who gave a piece of chocolate to a stranger who looked sad.”

The Doctor held back. A few minutes of what seemed like years of deafening silence passed. The Doctor stood up, and then instantly collapsed on the ground. He clutched onto his stomach. His liver was gone and his left heart was getting slower.

“Are you okay?” She instinctively helped him up.

“I’m going to show you.” He whispered in pain. “… how much destruction your Polovox toxin is going to bring to the world.” He reached for a stethoscope, rather painfully, and placed the ears on Tia. He placed the end of the stethoscope on his chest. “Tell me what you hear.”

“Heart arrhythmia. It’s common for people… your age.” She said taking the ears off.

“No. Listen closely.” He said, looking fiercely into her eyes.

Tia reluctantly placed the stethoscope in her ear and listened. Her eyes widened.

**_D_ ** _ouble heartbeats._

“You know about my race, don’t you? The story behind the Time War? It’s in every 87th century children’s fairy tale.” The Doctor said, coughing. It was becoming so much worse. He continued.

“Six days ago, for me, I was ‘executed’ for knowing too much.” He said, turning on a hologram of the Navdroid he had taken a scan of with his sonic screwdriver. “This robot, was placed all around space and time from the future of **y** our planet with a sample of your toxin to find a cure. They were so desperate because everyone started dying from the Polovox toxin. But there were no cures, at all. The Navdroids I met were on earth for almost seven thousand years, failing over and over to find an apt organic life that could produce an antitoxin. Because you’re right. The person who created it was too much of a genius to leave any weaknesses for a cure.”

“And that’s why you’ve been follow **ing** me **.** Ever since I was little.” She said, half consciously, still looking at the hologram. “To stop me.”

“For me, it’s been six days.” He said. “The Navdroids that are supposed to find an anti-toxin, recently killed two of my best friends. Well **…** I placed one in a cryogenic tube just before she died so if I can find a solution before I die, I could revive her.” He changed the frequency of his sonic and a hologram of Clara appeared.

“Her name was Clara. She travelled with me, until the poison killed her. She was an English teacher in a high school, also had her gran and her dad to support. She saved so many people all around the universe and changed and inspired so many during her travels.” He changed the slide, and showed her a hologram of Kate. “She was a scientific advisor of a military base on Earth. Much like you, only she appreciated every life and respected the aid of science. She had two children and a brother. She changed the way their military worked. Peaceful non-violent ways to counteract problems on Earth.”

He looked straight into her eyes. “Look me in the eyes and say they weren’t important enough. Their blood, is on your hands. … and mine will be in a day. Congratulations, you’ve managed to kill two very very important, innocent human beings and managed to commit genocide as well. Because of one stupid reason to serve your country.”

Tia looked away, in shame. She finally realised what she had done. She sobbed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realise this would be this bad. There’s nothing to stop this now. I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s not too late, Clara… I mean Tia. This is still in your future. You can fix the future by helping me find a cure.”

“How? It’s a paradox! We already know the future. It will happen, therefore it will happen regardless of my choices.” She yelled. Did he just call her Clara?

“Paradoxes fix themselves. Trust me, I am the Doctor, a Time Lord from Gallifrey. And **you** **are** the biochemist, who can fix everything, like you tried to fix Polovils’ disease problems.” He took a syringe and drew blood from his veins. “This is very valuable, and only you are allowed to have it. My blood should have superior immunity systems and a code for regeneration. Please, help me find a cure for the sake of the future.” He handed her the sample of his blood.

“Doctor, thank you for opening my eyes. I will find and create a cure… for you. I promise. I am sorry for any damage I’ve done to you and your friends. I am so sorry.” Tia said, gently holding onto the vial of blood.

“I believe in you… Clara.” Tia looked sadly at the **D** octor. She knew what was happening to him. The hallucinations we **re** prob **a** bly beco **ming** worse **.**

The Doctor nodded as goodbye and walked into the TARDIS. As soon as he closed the door, he blacked out from the pain he was withholding. His left heart had stopped, his body was slowly deteriorating, and he couldn’t even tell a difference between Clara and Tia. Everywhere he looked he saw Clara’s once smiling face, he missed the travels he had with her. “I love you Clara. I miss you.”

“Doctor, I do too.” Clara hugged the dying body of the Doctor. It was not far now – less than a day until the poison killed his body. He was doing so well to hide the damage of the poison. The tears fell from her face. Clara pleaded her last wish.

“Doctor, **please** **don’t die**. The universe needs you. **_I_** **need you**.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ;) ;) ;)


	9. Paradoxes of Our Lives

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god, I am so nervous to post this.   
> Please let me know if it makes sense, I read it over and over, trying to make it as straightforward as possible.
> 
> Oh by the way, if you guys haven't noticed, the bold letters of each chapters spell out a message!   
> (If you missed it, go back and check it out!)
> 
> This story is nearing its end, but it's not finished YET!
> 
> Enjoy and thank you to everyone who's reviewed :D

Clara paced around the console room anxiously. She looked at the Doctor, whose body was leaning against the TARDIS door. His face was pale and sweaty and in pain. The whole TARDIS was so quiet. Even the humming of the TARDIS had quietened down.

"Doctor. Please, you have to wake up." Clara crouched down, trying to wake him up. She touched his shoulder, but her hand went straight through. This was cruel, too cruel. There she was, trying to help, but all she could do is to see her best friend dying in pain. Drops of tear fell from her eyes.

Suddenly, the silence was disrupted.

"Sir, we found this box in the storage room." There was a voice from the outside.

"Open it up, but with caution. It might be a bomb from the enemies." Another voice commanded.

First it was thumps and clanks. People using hammers to try to get the door opened. Then, it was loud sledgehammer noises. Clara looked sadly at the Doctor, who was still leaning against the door. The noise soon after became worse. Constant grinding noises, smashing sounds and people yelling.

"STOP!" Clara screamed as she blocked her ears. "Please!" She begged.

The power tools miraculously whirred to a stop. Clara looked up in surprise.

"I don't think it is working. There's not even a scratch." The voice outside said.

"Right, throw it in the volcano. Let it melt away, not our problem."

Clara's eyes widened. "No!" She started panicking. She yelled into the Doctor's ears. "DOCTOR, WAKE UP!" she sat on the floor next to him. "Please. The TARDIS needs you. I need you."

There was a crash, and then the TARDIS started warming up. The console in the middle let out some sparks, and an alarm started ringing.

WARNING: Floor zero breached.

The TARDIS was heating up, yet not a sign of life from the Doctor, he was fighting his own battles with the poison.

Clara hesitantly stood in front of the TARDIS telepathic circuit. "Right, I don't care I'm dead or not. I still exist to my knowledge and therefore I have a conscience. I may not have a body, but I still have a mind. Please, just listen to me and get us to safety." Clara linked her hands into the TARDIS. She felt something bite into her fingers. She held on. "Please, just find me, and get us out of here."

'Error: psychic link failed.' The monitor said.

"You  _are_  registering my connection to you." Clara let out a dry laugh. It was better than nothing. "Come on, you can do it. Do it for the Doctor. I am Clara Oswald and I exist. Find me." She turned around to see the Doctor. "Love is not an emotion, love is a promise… and I promised to look after him."

The light bulbs on the central column started blowing out, and the TARDIS became hotter and hotter.

"Please. I love the Doctor, and you know that more than anyone else. We have to save him. Together." Clara begged.

Just as she finished the sentence, the TARDIS started groaning. It landed somewhere with a thud, and the TARDIS started doing self-repairs. As the TARDIS cooled down again, the Doctor stirred and slowly opened his eyes.

"Doctor!" Clara approached him. "You're still here."

"I can't die now." The Doctor said. "Not yet." He whispered.

He struggled up to the TARDIS console. "We've moved?" He whispered in confusion. "How?"

"Me." Clara stood beside him and hovered her hand on top of his.

There was a knock on the door.

The Doctor picked up his cane and struggled to the door. Tia was standing in front of her. Behind her, she could see a lonely house on a blackened ground.

"You're not dead yet." She said, looking at his pale face. Her hair had gone grey and so was her face. Everything had been worn out.

"I'm very… close." He gave her a sad smile. He looked at the watch. "45 minutes."

"Me too." She smiled back. "Turns out, you were right." She pointed behind her. "The enemy found out about the poison, and used it against us. We all died… or in the process of dying. Scientists estimate the Polinian race is going to go extinct in less than a week." She looked at the ground.

"When our planet was doused with the poison, the government did the only humane thing they could. Kill everyone before they die of terrible deaths." She said in sadness.

"Me, as a creator of the Polovox toxin, and other scientists who had a slight possibility of saving what we have were saved from this." She started sobbing. "I managed to commit genocide twice in the name of my parents. I am ashamed and I tried to fix it."

She handed him the vial his blood back. "One drop was enough. I made the cure."

The Doctor looked up in hope. "You did?"

She handed a clear piece of cube shaped structure. "I did."

She paused and continued. "This needs the energy of a Time Lord. You just need to pour your regeneration energy into this while it being connected to an infected person. Once it's done, you will have a walking host of the antitoxin."

She paused.

"I created the cure, but once I did, the Time Lord was gone. Everyone was gone. I was too late."

"I can go back and save people. I'm a time traveller." The Doctor said, with his optimistic eyes.

Tia shook her head. "No. The paradox is fixed. You don't know how many times I went back. I got a hold of a vortex manipulator. I watched my own race kill themselves in front of my eyes hundreds of times. No matter where I looked, I couldn't find you to save us. Then I found out your box… was thrown into the volcano by a stupid man with a stupid idea." She sniffled. "Then I created the Navdroids. I patched the vortex manipulator into hundreds of them, and sent them to a mission to find you. The past you. I programmed it so that it looked for people with enough background radiation. Its sole mission was to find the only man who could save the universe."

The Doctor's eyes widened. Suddenly, there was a sickening noise from the back. Tia started bleeding from the mouth and then fell forward.

"Tia?!" The Doctor dropped his cane and fell on the floor. "NO!"

Bullets started raining down on them. Tia whispered close to his ears. "You can fix the paradox, Time Lord." She closed her eyes.

The Doctor was blown into the TARDIS when a shockwave of the bomb pushed him backwards. The TARDIS closed her doors.

"TARDIS voice interface." He managed to whisper.

"Voice interface activated."

"How long do I have? ….. No, never mind. I don't need to know. Just leave it as a surprise." He sighed. He froze.

"I don't know." He uttered in realisation. "I don't know! I wasn't there to see it! I can fix the paradox!" He yelled in excitement. "The problem with paradoxes is that we have too much foreknowledge. I know how Kate died, I saw the whole process. I know how the Polinians became extinct because I was told about what happened to the Polinian race. I know about the Navdroids and their journey to find me. But there's one thing I don't know about." He glanced at the hologram of Clara. "I wasn't there for Clara's death. I don't know anything about it." He gazed at the clear cube. "Tia, you're a genius."

"What?" Clara asked. She was utterly confused.

"Voice interface, take me back to 25/02/15, London, Clara's flat, 7:45 am"

He staggered out and sonicked her motorbike. There was a spark and a trail of smoke. "Now you have to walk to school." He smiled. He staggered back to the TARDIS.

"Voice interface, now take me back to 25/02/15, London, Coal Hill Street, 7:50 am."

The TARDIS landed. With all his might, he walked out and spotted the Navdroid. The Navdroid that was about to kill Clara. He sonicked it and it fell. "Sorry dear, just need to find your ammunition." He fiddled around the Navdroid. The headache was pushing its way in him, but he didn't care. He could save everyone.

"Now, I'm programming you to be spotted by Clara. You won't fire the poison, you will drop it. I'm placing a perception filter on the crystal so that she's the one who spots it." He sonicked a big lump of crystal, momentarily paused and touched it.

"DOCTOR! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Clara yelled.

Miraculously, nothing happened. Instead, the Doctor smiled. "I just left her a message in the crystal. She will pick it up, and she'll receive the message."

He returned to the TARDIS. When the door closed behind Clara, he smiled.

"Hello Clara." He turned around and looked directly at her. His eyes were so glad to finally meet hers.

"You can see me?" Clara asked in shock.

"I could see you from the start." He smiled. He pointed at his head. "It's all changing in my head. You were here from the start of the journey."

"What have you done? I don't understand." Clara asked, confused.

"You saw Kate dying of the poison. You suffered from it almost identically to how she did. Tell me one difference between you two."

"I… don't know."

"Kate hallucinated her father. She was in a state of hallucination from start to the end. What about you? Did you have one?"

"I… I don't know." She said, after thinking about the hospital.

"Me neither." He smiled. "That's the beauty of changing time. The grey areas are in constant state of fluctuation. They grey areas are the ones that I can set to whatever I want it to be."

"And what is that in English?" Clara retorted. The Doctor chuckled. He missed her sass so much.

"In other words, you are still dreaming. You are hallucinating. THIS, is the dream." He took the cube and brought her to the freezer room. In front of her, was her body. "When you touched the crystal, I placed a psychic message to play out once you become unconscious."

He placed a wire around Clara's dead body and to the cube.

"Once you wake up, you'll be actually dying. You'll have to tell my real self. Connect yourself to the TARDIS telepathic circuit, it will transfer all the information from you that I need to stop all this."

His hand started glowing from the regeneration energy. The energy was transferred to the cube and the bright light made Clara close her eyes.

_When she opened them again, There was something covering her face… she felt a burning sensation to her sides. She reached out to feel a tube leading inside her. What was happening?_

_"Clara!" It was her dad. Well of course it was. "Oh my god, what is wrong with you?! Going to work even though you're sick. You know, when you are sick, even just a little bit, you have to…"_

_Clara groaned and switched her dad's never-ending speech off. Speaking of her brain, she had a sharp headache… actually, body ache. She ripped the oxygen mask off. It finally registered that she was in a hospital. White, sterile room, worried faces… the bed and the sickly green sheet of shame she was wearing. She loathed hospital gowns. She loathed hospital in general._

_"You should keep the mask on, dear. Just in case." It was her gran. The sight of her always made her relaxed. Her gran gently placed the mask on her face again._

**Then, she remembered what she had to do.**

**"I have to call the Doctor."**


	10. Time Lord Victorious

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! I felt like writing a sort of general-fluffy, less angst/drama chapter for today, just like a fill-in breather chapter.
> 
> I haven't really said this in this story, so I am doing it today. Bear with me for a bit XD.
> 
> This has been, and still is a really hard but enjoyable fic to write because I've challenged myself to write one chapter everyday, without any plans for the future plot. I feel like I should add that English is my second language and fic writing/correcting my mistakes by evaluating my writing is actually helping me improve my writing skills.
> 
> I'm glad that everyone is enjoying it and thank you so so much to those who review: your comments are HIGHLY appreciated.  
> Thank you equally to the Kudos and book markers, you guys are the ticking force of my story-writing.  
> I am so honoured and grateful that people are giving my story a chance, it's a great privilege to write a story that is supported by so many like-minded people :D
> 
> Right, hope you enjoy this chapter and see you (hopefully) tomorrow!
> 
> -Jenna

 

_Then she remembered what she had to do._

_"I have to call the Doctor."_

Doctor Lanzou entered Clara's hospital room.

"You called? Is everything okay?" He said, panting.

"No gran, I didn't mean him, I meant  _the_ Doctor." Clara said, slightly annoyed.

"What?! You are still mingling with that naked…" Dave looked up to see Doctor Lanzou's confused face. "…I mean, Swedish… boyfriend? I thought he dumped you?"

"First, we're not mingling, second, no, he didn't dump me. He wasn't… never mind. He kind of changed his face a bit…but I still travel around with him a bit."

"What, changed his face? Like botox?" Clara's gran gave out an oo. "Never a dull moment with him."

"What…. No!" She sighed. "Can I… can I just use my phone?" She said, her face blushing.

Doctor Lanzou shook his head. "Not here, I'm afraid. No phone zone."

"Well, am I allowed to take a walk then? You know, bit of fresh air." She said, impatiently.

"I'm afraid not." He pointed at the tube going through her sides. "We can't take pull this out until tomorrow, and that's if your condition gets better. Look, why don't you call your boyfriend when you're better?"

"He's not my boyfriend! And no, no, no, that won't do." Clara gulped. She was going to be in so much pain the next day. "I HAVE to call him now. Please." She looked at the doctor with pleading eyes.

"Clara! You're supposed to be resting right now. I'm furious with you." Dave half-yelled. He knew he should be nicer to her, but she was being so damn stubborn!

"I will, once I sort this out. This is… quite urgent." Who knew how long she would be able to retain the memory?

"Hi." There was a knock on the door. It was Adrian. "If you want, I'll call him." A relief spread across her face. "He's the caretaker guy, right? The really… weird one."

"Careta…" Clara blocked Dave's mouth. She chuckled awkwardly. "I'll explain later." She then turned to Adrian.

"Yes, yes he is." She took a piece of paper from the bedside table, a pen from Doctor Lanzou's breast pocket and scribbled the TARDIS' number on it. "What's the time?"

"Wh…"

"Just tell me, the date and time, to seconds." Clara interrupted Dave, becoming impatient.

"It's 25/02/15, 19:06:40." Doctor Lanzou said.

"Thanks." She quickly scribbled '25/02/15 19:10:00' on the paper. "Adrian, can you call him and tell him that I need him to arrive on that date. Please tell him kindly that I will be haunting him as a ghost if he doesn't come on time." She smiled.

"O…okay." Adrian walked out with the number.

"I'll… perhaps schedule a visit from psychiatric." Doctor Lanzou whispered to Dave.

"Hey, I heard that." Clara stared at him, annoyed.

"Yeah, that might be the best." Dave nodded behind her.

She felt a wave of sleepiness hit her. She couldn't sleep now, she knew what was going to happen if she did. "Oh, doctor Lanzou." She called, trying to hide her panic. "Can you put me off the painkillers for a bit please?" She sheepishly smiled. It was the only way to keep herself awake. She had to wait until the Doctor came. She had to tell him about everything.

"I really don't think that's a good idea. You'll be in a lot of pain, Clara." Doctor Lanzou said.

"I'll call you back if I really really need it. It's just… that I'm trying to lead a drug free life." She quickly made something up.

Dave looked at her horrified. 'What the hell are you doing?' he mouthed. Clara turned her head to look at her Gran, who was also startled as well.

"Anything for you to be happy." She gave a smile. "But are you really really sure, darling?" Her gran tried to persuade her to unmake her decision.

"Yeah, very very sure. Now, if possible." She looked at him.

Her eyes were automatically closing, she was so sleepy. 'No, stay awake!' she reminded herself.

"Something is probably affecting her head, please don't listen to her!" Dave said. "You're not actually going to listen to her, are you?"

"It's the patients' choice. I'm sorry, I have no choice." He sighed. He slowly pulled out a needle from her veins. "Let me know as soon as you can if you need anything at all." He said.

"Thanks. I will. Thanks for understanding." She said. The pain was already slowly creeping in.

When the doctor left, Dave furiously stared at her.

"I can't believe this."

"Then don't." She said.

Dave sighed. Her sass was still fully functional even if she was sick. "Clara, you're sick. You need every help you can get to get better, not stupidly reject everything. Stop being an idiot."

"Dad, I can take care of myself. I think the hospital is making you a bit huffy. Why don't you take a walk?" That wasn't a suggestion. That was almost an order.

"Yes dear, I think that might be for the best." Gran agreed. Dave stormed out, grumbling.

"Do you want some alone time?" she gently squeezed her shoulder. Gran always knew how she felt. She was grateful for that.

Clara weakly nodded. She was almost regretting the decision to take the pain meds off.

"Okay. Hope you get well. We'll come back tomorrow, okay? Sleep well." She gently kissed her on her forehead, left the room and gently closed the door behind her.

And as if that was a cue, the TARDIS materialised.

The door creaked open and the Doctor ran out, staring at the watch. "Exactly on time, as you requested." He walked over and held Clara's hand. "Are you okay?" His caring blue eyes met with hers.

Clara looked at the Doctor speechlessly. Yes, that was a dream. Yes, that never happened, but it did, didn't it? She half pounced and pulled him down to the bed. It was an awkward hug, and yes, it hurt a lot, but she didn't care.

"I missed you." A happy tear slid past. She wanted the moment to never end. But it did, as she flinched back in pain. It was as if something was stabbing her insides.

The Doctor quickly scanned over her. "Kidney failure." He frowned. "Why aren't you on any pain meds? This is not the dark ages."

"I can't." She breathed deeply, trying to control the terrible pain.

"…why?" He said confusedly. "Clara, there's nothing wrong with painkillers, they…"

"I KNOW! I've had that talk with my dad already, get off my back."

"I was never on your…"

"It's just a saying." She breathed out. "Sorry, I'm a little bit snappy. It's… quite painful, sorry. I can't have painkillers because it will put me to sleep. And I couldn't sleep until I talked to you."

"Me?"

Clara sighed. "Doctor, in two days, I'm going to die. But you… the future you…. Are trying to fix that from happening." She grabbed onto her side. "and you left me a message, to tell you... It's rather confusing."

"Tell me then." He said with a serious face. He knew from the scanning, she was not joking about this. "What did I want to tell myself?"

"TARDIS telepathic circuit. I'll tell you through that." She said quickly holding in her pain.

"I would have to undo all the tubing to move you." He said, after scanning each tubes.

"Yeah, do it, they can fix it later."

After a few agonising tugs and pulls, the Doctor scooped her up gently and placed her in front of the circuit. "You okay?" He asked, slightly holding her, just in case she fell.

"I will be after this." She slid her fingers inside the telepathic circuit. After a few seconds, something dinged.

"Right, all done. But no way am I taking you back to the hospital." The Doctor scooped her up again and placed her in the infirmary room.

"Doctor!?" She yelled, startled.

"You're in pain. I'm a doctor, I can fix this."

"You're not a doctor! You're kidnapping me!"

"Pfft it's not kidnapping if we know each other."

"Is too?!" Despite all the bantering, Clara was glad that she was in the TARDIS. Anything beat the hospital.

"Shh, I know you're secretly happy inside." That was true. Clara smiled.

"I hate this bed." She whinged as she was lowered down on the infirmary bed.

"Control freak, egomaniac AND a whinger, who would have known." He teased.

"Hey! You have the best ship in the universe, why don't you have decent beds?!" She retorted. The TARDIS hummed angrily. The Doctor gave his best offended face.

"OW!" The Doctor unsuspectingly injected her with a substance. "What was that?" She said, angrily rubbing her left arm.

"Pain killer. See, I fixed you. No more pain. I'll be back with more equipment. Get changed from that hideous gown. I'm sure if you're nice to the TARDIS, she'll supply you with some decent clothes." He smiled. "See you soon." The door hissed closed.

Clara looked up at the ceiling. "Look, I'm sorry I made fun of you, I don't mind the bed, I was just complaining to annoy the Doctor." She explained herself. A neatly folded pile of clothes appeared. She undid it to find the same green hospital gown as the one she was wearing.

"Haha, very funny."

After some more humiliation, negotiation and begging, Clara finally changed into a decent set of clothes.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

TARDIS Console Room

The Doctor froze in front of the monitor. Clara's thoughts and the message to himself were organised into chronological order and played in front of his eyes. When he finished watching, the Doctor looked on the floor with a sigh.

He knew what was at stake.

He knew what must be done.

_'Time Lord Victorious.'_ He banged the console in anger _._

Time Lord Victorious was wrong.


	11. Saving You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The ending is dedicated to SakiJune - I hope you like it :)

There was a round, golden analogue timer. Six days and thirteen hours, the hands inched around anti-clockwise. He looked at in horror and sadness. That was how much time he had with his impossible girl before he had to make the impossible choice. He had to look at it on the bright side – it was more than three days. He chained the end onto his waistcoat with care and placed the timer inside his pocket. He approached the infirmary room with his scanners and leaned on the door.

He closed his eyes. Inside, she was there and she knew nothing about what was really happening… and what had just happened.

_Ignorance is bliss._

The innocence and untainted soul of a young, caring, compassionate English teacher from Blackpool, eager to travel.

Paradox is evil. Paradox always poisoned and consumed everyone involved in it. He knew. He knew this paradox would smash her soul. Destroy her innocence, wake her up from the safe fantasy. He could never tell her.

The Doctor took a deep breath and opened the door. The petite figure of Clara sat on the bed. She gave a brilliant smile as he entered.

“You took your time.” She teased.

“Sorry. Got off track.” He placed the scanner, which looked like a small bracelet, on Clara’s small wrist.

“What’s this?” Clara asked, looking closely at the silver bracelet.

“A medical watch.” He took out a small monitor from his pocket. “It will send signals to this receptor. Just in case you kidney wants to give up on you anytime soon.” He scanned her from top to bottom again. “Also fixes internal injuries like kidney failures… and it doubles as a watch. Very convenient.”

It was actually a life support machine, but he didn’t say anything about that. He would do anything to keep her safe and happy. And that included lying, even though it broke his hearts lying to his best friend.

“So, am I okay then?”

“Your kidneys are fine now. All healthy and functional.” He said, assessing the life support machine. This extended her life for three more days. That was still too short. He had to figure out a permanent solution soon.

“But in my dream… I was… I…” Clara paused. She couldn’t remember the dream anymore. What was in it again?

The Doctor looked at her, concerned. He was sure that the TARDIS extracted any memories about ‘the dream’ out of Clara’s memories. “Do you remember anything from your dream?” He prayed that she wouldn’t.

“Well, no. Not really. It’s very fuzzy.” Clara said, focusing hard to remember what had happened. A snapshot of her mother’s face flashed past her mind. “I’m pretty sure it wasn’t anything important.” She gave him a dry smile.

The Doctor silently sighed out of relief. Good, she was forgetting the dream already.

“But yeah, thank you for fixing my kidneys.” She laughed as she jumped off the bed. “It doesn’t hurt anymore. It’s great!” She unexpectedly pounced on the Doctor, and he flinched at her hug.

“I told you! I’m against hugging!”

“You don’t get a say.” Clara giggled. Hang on, what was the round thing in his pocket? Clara sneakily unchained it and placed it in her pockets.

“Anyway, it’s a Wednesday. Time for us to travel. I was waiting for you this morning, but you didn’t come. And all this ordeal about kidneys got in the way.”

“Before all that, I was thinking if we could have someone else in the TARDIS with us?”

Clara raised her eyebrow. “Who?”

“Kate Stewart. You’ve met before, remember?”

“Oh! Her. Why her all of a sudden?” Clara questioned.

“…. Just because.” He said as he landed in the tower of London. He knew that just because he averted Clara’s death didn’t mean everything else had not happened. Time was in flux, and the events before might already have become a fixed point in time. He hoped they weren’t, but just in case, he had to keep Kate in the TARDIS as well.

As he opened the door, he found himself at gunpoint by numerous UNIT soldiers.

“Stop! I told you it’s the Doctor. No guns I said!” Kate emerged from the soldiers, scolding them. “Sorry about this. They are ever so excited to see you.” She turned around to face the soldiers. “Dismissed.”

The Soldiers saluted and marched off.

“Hello, Doctor… and Clara. Nice to see you both. What seems to be the trouble?”

“I need you to come with me.” The Doctor said. Kate looked at Clara in confusion. Clara mouthed ‘I don’t know’ and gave her a shrug.

“I’m sorry?” Kate laughed in disbelief. “Doctor, I am UNIT’s scientific advisor. I can’t just abandon work to travel with you.

The Doctor regretted his choice of words. Of course it didn’t work, it was Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart’s daughter. The traits of the Brig flowed in her blood.

“…Besides, we’ve been on yellow alert. I can’t just leave them. What if something happens while I’m away?” Kate added as an afterthought.

“Yellow alert?” The Doctor asked in confusion. “What yellow alert?”

“Well, some kind of alien form has been trying to hack into our systems. There was a five minute blackout just a few weeks ago where they accessed our top secret information.”

“And may I ask what this top secret information was?”

“About you, Doctor. Everything we had about you and the companions who had travelled with you over the years.”

“How do you know it’s an alien form?”

“Because they are running the same hacking system my dad found in his time. But that time, he was confronted by one himself. He managed to take it down, but it unfortunately escaped while in captivity.” She showed him a file of the incident. “Any idea what this might have been?”

“No… no idea.” It was the Navdroids. He could even recognise it from the terribly pixelated picture in the file. Why were they suddenly causing so much trouble?

Suddenly, a red alarm blared out. “But I have a feeling they are coming back for more.” He said as he turned to Clara. “Clara, go back to the TARDIS.” He knew what could happen if Clara was confronted by the Navdroids again.

“No. I’m going to stay…” Clara tried to argue.

“Back. TARDIS. Now. No arguments.” He was very serious. He couldn’t risk her again. Not like how it had affected him in his alternate timeline. He couldn’t bear losing her.

Clara angrily growled. “You’re an idiot.” She stormed inside the TARDIS and slammed the door. How could he do that? How dare he? Why was she following his orders? She angrily went into her room and laid on the bed.

oOoOoOoOoOoOOo

“Kate, I need you go into the TARDIS as well.” His voice deeply resounded, almost like a growl.

Kate looked at him in annoyance. She had been frowning at the tone he had used with Clara.

“Doctor, I am not your minion, and I certainly don’t respond to your commands, this is my base. I have to see what happened. I am not going to be bossed around by a simple old man.” She retorted. Something on her belt started beeping. “Excuse me. I think my team needs me.” She started jogging. The Doctor followed.

“Kate, you’re making a mistake.” His tone was much softer now. He had to save Kate.

They abruptly stopped when they were confronted with four Navdroids. They weren’t the peaceful kinds anymore; they had infiltrated the UNIT Base and was destroying everything on sight. He froze in shock. What had happened to the future he’d seen? The Navdroid’s quest to save the Polinians from the deadly toxin?

Unlike the Doctor, who was frozen in place, Kate picked up a gun from nearby and aimed it at one of them.

“Kate, you can’t do anything. We have to go back…” He saw a little canister rolling in front of his feet. His eyes widened. That was a flash grenade. His Time Lord instincts kicked in as he kicked it as far away as possible. He tackled Kate down to the floor and protected her eyes and ears.

 

FLASH

 

Everything was ringing. He sat there, stunned.

“Doctor! We have to get out of there. Come on!” It was almost like an echo. There was a muted sound of a gun fire somewhere distant. He was sure that didn’t sound like Navdroids. Everything was so white. So blank. What was he doing there? Where was he?

Two arms grabbed his shoulders and he was dragged towards something. His hearings gradually came back to normal. He heard soldiers shouting commands, bullet fires and grenades going off. He sharply sat up. He was behind a makeshift barricade. The soldiers behind them were shooting at the incoming aliens.

“Kate!” He screamed.

“Doctor, stay there!” She was behind a barricade as well. He saw her getting hit on the face by something.

“KATE!” He tried to join her, but the bullets flying past the barricade stopped him from doing so.

“I’m okay.” She said, wiping droplets of blood from her face. “Just… stay there!” She yelled.

What the hell was happening? Why were they under attack? The Doctor blinked again. Through the reflection of the polished floor, he caught sight of the ‘aliens’. They weren’t the Navdroids at all. Suddenly, a massive explosion followed by the shockwave blew him to the nearest wall. The blackness consumed him.

The next time he was conscious, he saw the blackened face of Kate.

“Are you okay?” The Doctor asked as he abruptly sat up. He gently touched the bleeding cut on Kate’s cheeks.

“I should be the one asking you that.” She gave a weak chuckle.

 “They are not aliens.” The Doctor said.

“Yeah, I figured. They were us. Definitely humans from the future. But… why?”

“I don’t know.” He said, deep in thought. ‘Why indeed.’ Suddenly, something registered in his mind. Clara was still in the TARDIS.

“Clara!” He ran into the TARDIS and slammed the door.

OoOoOoOoOoOOo

Clara’s room

Clara felt the TARDIS shake.

“Doctor?” She yelled. No response. She walked into the console room. Still no one.

She was still furious with the Doctor. She was going to teach him a lesson about how he talks to her. How dare he boss her around like that? He was her hobby. She was not going to put up with that kind of behaviour, no matter what the circumstance was.

She looked around again, sighed and sat on the chair. She felt for her pocket and slowly took out the round golden… thing.

“What are you?” Clara whispered to the watch. “I’ve never seen you with the Doctor before.” She assessed every inch of it. Gallifreyan symbols? She wasn’t sure, but there was an engraving running through the golden amulet.

She pressed a button, and the lid popped out. Inside was a timer counting down.

“Two days?” She asked herself. Suddenly, something about a ghost went past her head. However, her trail of thought was disrupted when the door unexpectedly opened. “CLARA!”

Clara quickly hid the timer in her pocket.

“Doctor, I’m furious…. Whoa, what happened to you?” The Doctor’s face was blackened and some of his hair was singed.

“Thank god.” He briskly walked over to her and held her hands. “I am so sorry for before. I really had to… you were in danger.” His blue eyes proved that what he was talking about was the truth.

The anger inside of Clara melted away. “That’s okay. Just don’t let it happen again.” She warned. “But you didn’t answer my question. What happened to you?”

“Just… things. Right, you wanted to travel. Let me have a shower first and we’ll go travelling, okay? I have just a place we could go to.” He yelled down the corridor as he headed to the showers.

The Doctor locked himself in the showers and sank down. Whatever happened in the future was because of him. He had to go to the future and set it right… without killing Clara or Kate. This was going to be hard.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

UNIT Base

“I… I don’t understand.” McGillop looked at Kate in confusion.

“Twenty seven kidney failures in the last 12 hours. I don’t think this is a coincidence.” Kate frowned. “Set up a quarantine, and place everyone who was involved with the incident in it.”

“B..bbut ma’am. Ttt.tthat includes you.” McGillop stuttered.

“I know.” She placed her hands on his shoulder. “Don’t worry. I promise everything will be fine.” She gave him a reassuring smile.

“Is that like… oh, never mind.” McGillop bit his lip to stop himself.

“Like what?” Kate’s smile disappeared. McGillop cursed on the inside.

“L..llike that car crash. You told me everything was going to be fine. Everything wasn’t fine. Osgood never came back. My friends… they all died, and I was just placed in a position higher than I deserved. I didn’t even have time to grieve, because of everything I suddenly had to do. I still have no idea what happened.” McGillop was almost in tears.

Kate stood there stunned. She had no idea how much it had hurt him. She handed him a USB stick, which had ‘confidential’ engraved on it.

“McGillop, I am so sorry I lied to you. It wasn’t my decision. The decision was made by the directors above me. But that still doesn’t excuse myself for not telling you. I guess I didn't want to think about what had happened that day. It was a dark day for us all. This contains all the files you need to know about what happened that day. I am so… so sorry for your loss.” She gave him a sincere look.

McGillop looked at Kate gratefully in tears.

“Thank you, ma’am.” 


	12. What happened to the future?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Sorry for the slow update - I've had a lot on my plate lately, so it was quite hard trying to juggle everything!  
> By the way, I am currently looking for an editor! As you can see, I'm horrible at expressing myself/ correcting my grammatical and spelling errors. I would be so grateful if someone checked over my story before I actually post on AO3 and on Fanfiction. If you want to be an editor, please leave your email address (either on the comments or through PM), and I'll contact you through mine :3  
> I hope you enjoy this chapter and see you on the next update!

“Right. So… Where are we going?” Clara said, casually flipping a small switch on the console.

The Doctor frowned and flipped the switch back to its original position. “Somewhere fun. I’ve always meant to take you there. It’s like Earth…”

Clara groaned. “Doctor! You always take me to Earth-like planets!”

“…It’s like Earth but cleaner. Come on, you’ll like it. Ah, speaking of liking…” He took out a small translucent stone from his pockets. “For you m’lady.” He momentarily thought about how he never got to give this to Clara last time in the universe that could have been.

The small stone was chained through a golden chain to wear like a necklace. Clara gasped at the beauty.

“That’s so sweet. Thank you, Doctor!” She kissed lightly on his cheek.

The Doctor smiled seeing her twinkling eyes. The Doctor helped her wear it and opened the TARDIS doors. The golden sunlight shone into the TARDIS.

“You first.” He gestured Clara to check out the new planet. As Clara walked into the light, her eyes inflated. He loved this face, she was so beautiful when she was in awe.

The blue, clear river flowed lazily between the two apple green, grassy meadows and the fluffy Polovils excitedly played amongst them. The air was so crisp and fresh. Clara, with her jaws wide open ran down to the stream and touched the water.

The Doctor slowly walked out of the TARDIS and looked at Clara’s happiness.

“Doctor! This is AWESOME!” She yelled from far away, excitedly waving.

“Anything for you, Clara, my impossible girl.” He whispered as he waved back.

The Doctor sighed and sat down on the bench. It was only downhill from here. He had no idea how much of the poison the life support could withhold.

Suddenly, he was interrupted when a little girl, about seven years old, sat next to him. It was _the_ little girl. Tia.

“You look sad.” She said, scanning his face. She traced his eyes and saw Clara dipping her feet in the river. “How long does she have?” She asked, empathising with the Doctor.

The Doctor jolted. SHE WAS JUST SEVEN! How was she figuring all this out?

 “She has six days. How did you know? You have great observational skills.” He said.

“You’re watching her like how my mum watched grandpa in the hospital. He died soon after.” She shrugged.

“I’m very sorry to hear that.” He replied distantly.

“That’s okay, I didn’t know him anyway.” She dismissed it. “Chocolate? It boosts your serotonin levels in your brain. Try it.” Her brilliant teal eyes stared into the Doctor’s sad, old, blue eyes. He smiled. He remembered this from the Doctor’s past.

“Thanks.” He said as he took a piece. He took out a little magnifier. He turned his back towards her, etched something on the magnifier and handed it to little Tia.

 “This used to be my friend’s. But I want you to have it. I think you’ll become a great scientist in the future.” He showed her the little etches he made. “And just remember, come visit me in that date with your family. I would love to say hi to your parents sometime and congratulate them for having such a smart girl.”

“Look, my parents are down in the streams catching Polovils, why don’t you say hi to them now?”

The Doctor firmly shook his head. “No, this date. Remember this date, you have to come here with your parents. Okay?”

Tia slowly nodded. “Okay. See you then.” She paused. “By the way, what do I call you, Mister?”

“My name is the Doctor.” He gave her a smile.

She gave an innocent smile. “Okay Doctor. See you then! Thank you for the magnifying glass!” Tia ran down to join their parents.

Clara skipped uphill. “And who was she?” Clara watched the little girl running downhill towards the river.

He smiled. “Come on. Back to the TARDIS. We have an appointment with the three doctors.”

Clara raised her eyebrows, but followed him back to the TARDIS.

Halfway through the steps to the console room, she tumbled. The Doctor quickly caught her.

“Clara, are you okay?” He seemed too worried in Clara’s eyes for a clumsy stumble.

“I didn’t see the step. Oops.” She chuckled. The Doctor gave her an empty smile.

“Next time use your eyes. It’s no use if you don’t use that inflatable eyes of yours.” He teased. But Clara felt that the face beneath the mask was something completely different… almost like… panic? Guilt? Sadness?

“Sorry. I’ll be more careful the next time.”

The TARDIS shook and landed for the second time.

“Where are we now?” Clara looked at the Doctor in curiosity.

“Go out and check it out. I’m just going to fix… my navigator. I’ll be there shortly.”

Clara nodded and left the TARDIS.         

As soon as the door closed, he took out his life support receptor.

“Please, not so soon. You can’t do this to me.” He murmured to himself as he read the scan results.

 

Clara Oswald

Life expectancy: 5 days, 23 hours, 52 minutes, 47 seconds.

Current injuries: kidney failure, liver failure, deterioration of the nervous system.

Polovox poison is currently affecting 48% of the body.

 

The poison was spreading. He looked at the results in horror. He heard her scream outside.

“Clara!” He sprinted out to find her on the ground.

“Doctor! These… furry creatures sure love to lick people!” She giggled.

The Doctor let out a relieved sigh. “They are called Polovils. They are harmless, just like the domestic cats of Earth.”

“They are sooo cute!” She scratched one on the head. She gasped. “Can we keep one in the TARDIS? I’ve always wanted to have a cat!” The Doctor’s eyes widened and shook his head.

“I can’t… deal with furry stuff. What if their fur gets in the TARDIS? She will be huffy about it.”

“Pleeeaaaassee???” She begged.

“I’ll think about it.” He replied. Then, he froze. He approached a little note on the bench.

“Doctor – the building across the river. Level 5. Come visit. I have a surprise for you! -Tia” The note said.

“What’s that?” Clara peeked through. The Doctor quickly hid it.

“Nothing. Stay here, I need to… do something.” He ran to the building.

“Doctor…?!” Clara followed. There was no way he was going to abandon her in a foreign planet, alone.

He arrived at the building that had exploded in the alternate universe. However, this time, there were no traces of bombs. He madly ran around the building waving around his sonic screwdriver, when he ran into Tia.

“Doctor!” A joyful smile spread across her face.

The Doctor flinched as she hugged him. “I told you to meet me by the park?! Why did you stay?!” He said, panting. “We have to get your parents out now!”

“Whoa, mad man, stop. Breathe.” Tia said, looking at him with her clear, teal eyes. “Sorry, I really wanted to show you something. I did leave you a message though.” She shrugged.

He hurried her. “Your parents. Get them out of the building. NOW.” He demanded. Clara joined him.

“Why are you here? I thought I…” The Doctor said. Clara gave him the ‘look’ and he immediately ceased talking.

“Come up and see what I’ve been working on.” She placed a vortex manipulator on his wrist and before he could protest, they appeared inside the building.

“Doctor, welcome to the Scientists’ Guild.” Tia introduced him.

Both Clara and the Doctor’s eyes widened.  There were all sorts of advanced technology in the room.

“I knew you’d like it. I invented everything in here. This is a force field watch, once you wear it, you can survive the harshest explosions and shockwaves.” She showed him a silver band. “This is an air converter, which draws water from thin air… virtual immunity system, where it protects you from any diseases for a whole year.” She explained.

“And you have something else in development, don’t you?” He cut her off. Clara looked at him, startled at the aggressiveness in his voice.

“Yes.” She said, almost shamefully as she showed him the green crystal. Tia intently looked at his face, as if she was trying to read him. Clara looked at her in curiosity.

 “These are dangerous. I think it would be the best for you guys to leave it alone. Stop developing it.” He said as he shattered it on the ground and ground it with his foot. Clara looked at him shocked.

“Doctor, what the hell are you doing?” Clara angrily whispered to the Doctor.

“It’s okay, Clara.” She said closing her eyes.

The Doctor continued.

“Okay, I’m sorry for doing this, Tia, but this crystal has a potential to kill everyone. I’m a time traveller, and I saw the world burn because of this. I’m sorry, but what you’ve created will do more harm than good. This, will destroy your parents and destroy your entire race.” He said in a dark, serious tone.

There was silence. Tia was tearing up. The Doctor finally realised how harsh his voice was.

“We’ll have a talk once we’re in the TARDIS.” Clara was bright red with anger.

 “…Look… I’m sorry.” His voice died down. He looked away in shame. He shouldn’t have acted up.

“So, you know about the crystal. Good. Don’t worry Doctor, I know too. I had to be careful, foreknowledge is dangerous.” Tia said, quietly.

The Doctor looked up in confusion.

Tia unbuckled the Vortex manipulator. “Where do you think I got this from?”

He gasped. Doctor idiot. That was him. In the alternate universe, Tia had only acquired her vortex manipulator after she had become an adult. The Tia he was seeing now was only in her teens.

 “My parents died the day I met you. Two Navdroids appeared out of nowhere and killed them. They were trying to kill me, but my parents sacrificed themselves to protect me.” She said, emptily. “Later that day, my future-self found me and gave me this. She told me about the Polovox virus that was going to wipe everyone off this planet and many others outside of my world. She showed me the life I will be leading after my wrong destroys the world.” She whispered so that Clara couldn’t hear. “And I know and you know that I kill your Clara… and you too in the end because of this.” Her voice was so broken. Was the future her so desperate to destroy her soul from her childhood?

Tia showed the Doctor the crystal. “I am forced to create the poison no matter what happens in my life. I’ve been to all of the futures, I’ve apparently tried everything I could and created hundreds of different alternate timelines.” She gestured at her inventions. “I’ve been developing these inventions to outweigh the wrong I am going to create. I’m doing my best, but you can’t change a fixed point in time. I’ll create the poison no matter what else happens in my life.”

The Doctor looked intensely into her teal eyes. “But you know what else?” He gave a kind, wise smile.

“What?” She looked up, surprised at his smile.

“You develop the cure in the end. You win.” He leaned closer to her. “You save Clara. In fact, I’ve been to the future where you fix the world. Like a true Doctor.”

Tia’s eyes started twinkling. “Really?”

“Doctor Gatford, it’s time you started your quest. The quest to save the world. Never, ever lose hope. You will succeed. I know you can.”

The conversation was interrupted when he heard a clang on the polished floor. Before he could react, the room was filled with sleeping gas. His eyes automatically started closing.

“Doctor!”

In the last moments he was awake, he saw soldiers trying to take Tia away. Tia momentarily broke free of the soldiers’ grasp and struggled towards the Doctor and Clara. She placed the vortex manipulator on his hands and he was back on the grassy plain in front of the TARDIS.


	13. Change Your Mind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to claraoswelve and hannienicole for editing my story.  
> Equal thanks to all the fantastic comments and people who have left kudos :D  
> You guys are all BRILLIANT!  
> Enjoy!

“Clara?” The Doctor woke up on the grass in front of the TARDIS. 

“Clara? Tia?” He clumsily spun around on the spot trying to find them. No, only empty grass and the sunset greeted his eyes. There was no one there except for him. His hearts started thumping madly.

“No…” He placed his hands on his face in sorrow. He had lost them both. “No!” He yelled out in anguish as he kicked the TARDIS.

The phone started ringing.

“Hello?” The Doctor swiftly held the transceiver.

“Doctor!” There was a gasp. “You have to hurry.” The voice seemed strained, like she had done a lot of running.

“Who is this?”

“It’s Tia. I can’t talk any longer. Clara’s dying. Find us at space time coordinates 7:82-3492-35-9.”

The phone hung up and the doctor stood there in bewilderment.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Somewhere dark, with occasional bumps and humming below her, Clara slowly opened her eyes.

“Hey, you okay?” A young girl came into her vision.

“I think so… Where are we?” Clara croaked. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could see that they were in some sort of room with no doors or windows.

“I didn’t really introduce myself to you before, sorry. My name is Tia, nice to meet you.” She helped Clara up.

“I’m Clara, but I think you already know that”

Tia nodded. “Yeah.”

“Anyway we’re in a transporter ship. Judging by the material, I would say military grade.” She said banging on the solid walls.

“Doctor?” Clara looked around, still in a state of daze. “Where’s the Doctor?”

“Clara, calm down. He’s safe, I’ve managed to send him away before they caught us. I was trying to teleport you too, but I didn’t have enough time. Sorry.” Tia apologised.

“That’s okay. I’m sure he will come rescue us from whatever this place is.”

“We’re in a ship, probably flying through space right now. God knows where they’re taking us.” She slumped down in the corner. Clara sat next to her.

Clara noticed that Tia was eyeing on the silver bracelet. Her face was screaming guilt.

“It’s a watch from the Doctor.” Clara explained. Tia slowly brushed over the smooth silver, in sadness. Tia knew exactly what it was and saw how much damage the poison had done to her already even with the life support.

“It’s a nice watch. Don’t take it off, it suits you.” She gave Clara a slight smile. Of course, she knew what would happen when the life support machine was taken away from her. She shook off the terrible thought and hoped that whoever were keeping them were reasonable enough to let her keep it on.

A door slid open and the bright light blinded both of them.

“The captain wants to see you.”   A soldier said gruffly.

As they were led out, he stopped and grabbed onto Clara’s wrist.

“Hey! You leave her alone!” Tia growled. She quickly pushed him to the wall so that Clara couldn’t hear anything. “We’re still alive here because your captain wants us to be, correct?”

He gave a harsh stare.

“Don’t go all quiet on me. This is a military ship. The military don’t take prisoners and hostages in their ship unless they are tactically useful. I’m not stupid.” She whispered.

He paused momentarily before answering. “Correct. The captain has demanded that you were kept alive.”

“Well, you take that off her, and she won’t be. Do you want to be responsible for that? Imagine what your captain would do to you if one of his precious assets was destroyed at the hands of one stupid soldier.” She threatened.

“Her.” The soldier corrected as he roughly pushed Tia away. “Keep walking.” He commanded.

Tia quickly joined Clara’s side. She breathed out in relief and looked at Clara with a reassuring stare.

‘She’s not going to die on my watch’ Tia solemnly promised herself. She would take care of Clara, no matter what. After all, it was her wrongdoing that caused all of this trouble.

The door hissed open to the captain’s quarters and they were forced to their knees.

“Doctor Tiana Gatford. Pleasure to finally meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you.” A tall woman came out of the shadows.

“Why am I here? Why can’t you just leave me alone? You destroyed my family, my life and my friends. What else do you want from me?” Tia tried to keep her voice calm and steady, but a slight tremble betrayed her

Clara looked at her in sudden realisation. She knew who they were. Judging by her tone of voice, she also already knew the answer to her questions. Clara wondered how much she actually knew about this incident. Had she already seen it in the future?

“As you might know, you are the only person known who will create the Polovox toxin. The fixed timeline states that you are the creator of the poison, but do not specify _who_ you make it for. Well, that’s going to be decided today.” The one end of her lips twisted upwards.

“Over my dead body.” She hissed. “I would rather die than create that monstrous poison, especially when I am forced by a madwoman like you.”

“Sooner or later, you will create the Polovox toxin. I hope you make the right decision.”

They were thrown back into the cell.

“You were really brave, I’m proud of you.” Clara said, breaking the silence in the cell.

“Fear makes you brave.” Tia said, smiling at the memory of her past. Clara had said it to her in one of the trips she had made to an alternate future.

“Indeed it does.” Clara said weakly, followed by a cough.

“You alright?” Of course she wasn’t, she was dying.

“Yeah, the cell is a bit cold. Maybe I’m coming down with the flu.”

“Flu?” She chuckled. “We extinguished that virus millenniums ago!”

“Well, years ago is years to my future.” She responded with another cough.

Tia knew that, but it still messed with her mind. If she were travelling this far into the future, she wouldn’t have been able to cope with anything Clara was going through right now. Clara had told Tia in the future that she had done this for years now, with the Doctor and his blue box. Tia hated travel. She just wanted to live her life in a linear order, just like normal people.

Silence fell again, and hours passed. The cell became colder and colder, and they huddled to conserve heat. Tia started worrying as Clara became paler. The coughs were becoming more frequent and she was running a fever. The cold environment certainly didn’t help her.

She couldn’t stand to see her dying. She had to do something. Clara was leaning on her shoulder, sleeping with shaky, shallow breath. She placed her head gently down on the floor of the cell.

“I’m sorry, Clara.” She approached the door and banged on it.

The little slit opened. “What do you want?”

“I demand to see the captain. I’ve changed my mind.” She said, keeping an eye on Clara’s pale form.  


	14. They See Us

_“I demand to see the captain. I changed my mind."_

“Glad you chose this option.” The captain smirked as she saw the cold frame of Tia. “Melting you would have been… messy.” 

Tia gave a sharp stare. The captain had deliberately lowered the temperature in the cells. “Tell me, what are you going to use the poison for?” She asked, fiercely staring into the captain's eyes.

“To stop the war.” She icily responded. “With your poison, the war would be over before it even started.”

Tia clenched her fist. People like the captain, condescending people who thought some people were lesser than others, disgusted her. But she had to let go. She had to think about Clara and the Doctor.

“I have three conditions.” Tia supressed her anger. “One, Clara and I will not be kept in cells, but somewhere free. Two, you will get me anything and everything I need without questions. Three, you will not bother us until we have created the poison. The poison will take a long time to complete because the one and only prototype was destroyed when you kidnapped me.”   

“Deal.” The captain sprayed something on her face and everything went blank.

oOooooOoOoOOo

Tia was fiddling with her magnifier. The Doctor was a nice guy. He gave her a magnifier, just like the ones her parents had. Her parents had always warned her about stranger danger, but it seemed that they were wrong. The Doctor was very friendly and acted almost as if he knew her like family. She ran towards the river, eager to show the new gift to her parents.

“Mummy! Daddy!” Tia abruptly stopped running. There was someone else with them. Something else. They weren’t humans, they looked more like the assisting robots she had seen while staying at her parents’ lab.

“Tia, RUN!” Her mum screamed after spotting her. Tia stepped backwards and fell over on her bottom, startled and confused. Her dad knocked the robots off in a swift movement, while her mum held her and started running. She curled up in her mum’s grasp. She heard the panicked breath and her heart thumping wildly. From far away, she saw the robots shooting a bright light that knocked her dad into the river.

“Daddy!” She screamed. Her mum suddenly jolted to a stop. “Mummy?” 

Her mum slowly placed her down on the ground and fell forwards. She wasn’t moving. “Mummy? What’s happening? Don’t sleep here!” She pulled her mum’s hand. The robots were closing in and Tia looked around nervously for help.

Suddenly, there was a zap and a person arrived. A young woman who had a friendly face. “Hello Tia, bit of a rush, grab my hand.” 

Tia, desperate for help, instinctively reached out, but one hand still on her mum’s body.

One minute she was seeing her mother dead on the grass and the next she was in a dark room. No… they were on a spaceship. She could see the stars zooming past them, or rather, she was zooming past the stars. That wasn’t important.

“Where’s my mummy?!” She demanded. She could still vividly imagine her falling to the grass. She wasn’t there anymore. “She needs help! You’ve left her there!” She burst into tears. 

“Shhhh. Tia, I’m sorry.” Her soothing voice calmed her down. “We’re going to fix all this.” She squeezed her hand as reassurance.

“How?” She stared at her warm hand. That was when she noticed the silver bracelet around her wrist. The one she’d seen on grandpa.

“My name is Clara.” She gave her a warm smile. “…and everything is going to be okay. I promise.” 

Behind her, came a shy woman. A woman whom she had never seen, yet was so familiar.

She was the older version of herself.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Tia was on a comfortable bed. She rubbed her eyes and sleepily looked around her surroundings. It was a warm bedroom, furnished modestly and with windows covered by delicate curtains. She opened the curtain to discover a welcoming ray of sun.

“Morning!” Clara chimed from the outside. “I baked you a soufflé, but it was too beautiful to live. Instead, have breakfast in bed.” She chuckled.

“You look much better than before!” Tia said, giving her a big smile and a hug.

“I fell asleep in the cell, and woke up here. I found you sleeping and thought I better not disturb you.” Clara explained. “Well, enjoy your breakfast, I’ll be outside, having a walk.”

Where were they? How were they there? Millions of questions flooded Tia’s mind. As she was eating bacon and eggs prepared by Clara, she saw a little note written in a rushed handwriting. 

“We are being watched.”


	15. Everything is not what it seems

Tia finally caught up to Clara, who was roaming outside on the grassy plain.

"Did you enjoy breakfast?" Clara gave her a brilliant smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Ah, yes, it was very nice. I was very  _surprised_." Tia smiled back, hoping Clara was catching onto what she was trying to say. Damn it, Clara was much better at this than she was. Her face could mask whatever she wanted to, whenever. "So, what do you think about this place?" Tia asked, trying to determine what Clara already knew about the place.

"It's not too bad. I mean, the  _outside_  is great _,_ but  _watching_  the grass grow is a bit dull." She faced the big Victorian style house. "You know, from the house, you can  _see_  all of this from  _the windows_. The house is pretty and neat and all, but I think the  _bedroom_  and the  _kitchen_ could do with some  _clean up_. It's a little bit dusty." She accented some of the words, which Tia could catch on.

'We're being watched everywhere, inside and out. Even the windows in the house, the kitchen and the bedroom are a way of spying on us.' Tia figured out. She presumed the 'clean-up' meant some way to get rid of these bugging devices.

Clara paused and lowered her voice. "Oh, I checked out the  _attic_ before as well. That exceeded my expectations. It was spotless-clean, and so  _closed off_. I think I might go there to read. Such a  _private_  space." The ends of Clara's lips tilted slightly upwards.

'They can't see us from the attic!' She quietly realised. 'Of course! They would have a control room somewhere that overlooked all the spying things. They can't bug that place because it will interfere with the overall control node.'

"Let's head back then. It's  _uncomfortable_  standing outside without proper gear." Tia replied.

The house seemed normal, except for the small door that led to the basement, which was a gigantic laboratory stocked with whatever she wanted. Clara was still upstairs doing god knows what. Tia felt so insecure and uncomfortable, now knowing that they were watching. From upstairs, she heard a shatter.

"Clara!" She raced upstairs to find broken vase. Clara was on the ground, having a coughing fit.

Tia brought her a glass of water, and the cough died down.

"Come on, let's get you up." As Tia helped her up, she felt Clara discretely pressing a small piece of paper into the palm of her hand.

"Sorry, I think my flu is getting worse." Clara said. "I might go and have a rest." She said and left the room.

When Tia opened the note, she saw Clara's rushed handwriting: "6:00pm, attic."

oOoOoOoOoOoOoO

At 6:00pm, the grandfather clock in the living room chimed. It was such an elegant piece of art, probably ruined by the army so they could install another spying device.

Tia walked up to the attic to find Clara already there, pacing around.

"Tia!" She hugged her. "I am so sorry for all the inconspicuous hints. I didn't know how to communicate with you. They are watching everywhere."

"No, no. I got all your hints. Don't worry. How did you figure all this out?"

"Oh, I've picked up things here and there. I learnt to see through perception filters while I was travelling. Before you woke up, I walked around, scouting the place. Nowhere is safe. There are so many cameras and bugging devices everywhere." She gazed at the watch. "From what I've figured, the lights on the cameras turn off for fifteen minutes every three hours. I'm assuming that's when their shifts change and their watchers are exchanged. That means we have fifteen minutes before we have to go back down."

Clara led her in front of a big, heavy machine. "Any ideas on how to turn this thing off without triggering the alarms?"

Even though this big machine was being used for terrible purposes, Tia stood there in awe. There were only three of them ever developed in the universe, and she was standing in front of one of them. Tia excitedly broke the machine apart like a child opening a Christmas present, and saw the complicated wiring inside. "I can try. I think I can manage in three hours. There's a workshop in this house, with all the appropriate tools. I can try working on a virus to send a fake signal of us 'working on the poison'."

"Okay." Clara said. "Our fifteen minutes is nearly up, we better go back down. See you in three hours."

When Tia started going downstairs, Clara stopped her briefly.

"Wait." Clara looked at Tia with her big, sad eyes. "Look into my eyes and promise you will never create that poison. No matter what they tell you to do."

"I promise." She lied, looking into Clara's eyes and gently grabbing onto her wrist, secretly taking Clara's pulse. Tia wasn't sure if Clara had collapsed intentionally or by accident. If it was the latter, Tia knew she was running out of time.

She sighed as she walked down. 'Just as I thought.' She whispered to herself. Clara's pulse was weaker than she had hoped.

oOoOOOoOoOooOoOoOoOoOoO

**Three Hours later- back in the attic.**

"Just a little bit here…" Tia fixed the last wire through the controller. Suddenly, the green lights emanating from the controls turned blue.

Clara paused in half hooray pose and looked at Tia in confusion. "Is blue good?"

Tia gave it a little thump and the colour changed back to green.

Tia jumped up and down and hugged Clara. "YES! Very good. The controllers will now see a random image of us doing normal everyday actions – I'll be down at the lab 'creating' the poison, and you'll be 'assisting' me doing so. Now that we're free from their control, come on!" She took Clara's hand and led her to the lab.

However, neither Clara nor Tia noticed the smoke and the blinking red light that followed after.

Halfway down the stairs, Tia caught Clara as she was tripping down the stairs. "You okay?" Tia asked, as she helped her up.

"Yes, fine. Sorry, I'm always so clumsy." She shook her head gently, frowning. Clara knew something was up with her body. She'd noticed how much harder it was to move around. The fact that she didn't have a total control over her body frustrated her.

Seeing the frustration on Clara's face made Tia sad. 'Keep pretending. Just a little longer and everything will be fixed.' Tia repeated in her mind.

"Sit here." Tia gestured to a chair when they finally reached the lab. She ran to a counter, grabbed onto the ends of different coloured wires and began to connect them to Clara's life support.

Clara momentarily frowned in confusion then she gasped.

Tia smiled. Clara was so quick at getting things. "You're connecting the wires onto the bracelet because it's connected to the Doctor!" She excitedly shouted.

"That's the idea!" She ran up to a monitor on the walls. "Nothing can get in or out in this place. This place is basically a hologram room. We're still in the ship – I figured it out when I heard the humming." Tia placed her ears on the ground and heard a gentle humming.

"Well, nothing can get out except… perhaps… archaic signals." She smirked. "The Doctor once told me about his love for Earth."

"You've met the Doctor before?" Clara asked.

Tia nodded. "And you too. In my past, your future. As the Doctor put it, it's timey wimey. We spent some time together." She said, pondering the past that is yet to come for Clara and the Doctor. "But back to archaic signals! I learnt ancient earth Morse code when I was little… and I know how to send the signal. To the military, they'll think they are random taps. But to the TARDIS… she can home in on the signal and open a communications link between us!" Tia pressed something and a looping messaged repeated itself. Short short short, pause, long long long, pause, short short short.

"SOS." Tia explained. "A universal signal for help." She peeled the wires off Clara's bracelet. Clara observed the lights flickering in the same pattern as the Morse code.

"Wherever he is, it will take him maximum of two days to find our location and home in on the signal. Now… the fun begins." She pressed a button, and the illusion of a house disappeared only leaving a black room with green grids.

"So this is the hologram room." Clara muttered, looking at it in awe.

The walked around the edges of the room until Tia stopped.

Tia pressed a button and they were faced with empty corridors. She gave Clara a cheeky grin as she offered a hand.

"Miss Oswald, care to join me in escaping this spaceship?"

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

**TARDIS**

"Tiana Gatford." The Doctor intensely stared at the book. "There's something off about you."

He shook his head and threw the history book across the library in frustration. "What are you hiding? Tell me your secrets. Why are you the only one who can make the poison?" He sighed as he watched the countdown on Clara's body clock. Every second counting down hurt him more and more. The worse part was that he already knew where they were.

"I'm sorry Clara. I can't rescue you until I know what Tia is." He accidentally knocked a thin book out of the library shelf.

He opened it and gasped in realisation. He sprinted to the console room in a manner of urgency.

Clara was in danger.


	16. Dreaming

So much running.

Clara and Tia had been running and hiding for almost four hours straight. This shouldn’t get Clara but it was. She was beginning to lag behind, puffing.

“Stop here!” Tia whispered. She touched an inconspicuous button wedged under a painting and a secret door opened. “Through here, quick!”

When the door closed, Clara saw a tiny spaceship parked in the middle.

“How did you know about this place??” Clara asked after catching her breath.

“I saw it when I was little. I think the Doctor said that he went to the past and asked the builders to build this hidden compartment so that when this day came, we had a safe place to stay.”

“What?” Clara shook her head, confused.

“Timey wimey is the best description I think.” Tia said, chuckling.

“Yeah.” She chuckled back.

When the door to the shuttle opened, Clara had no choice but to laugh.

“It’s bigger on the inside. Of course.” Clara muttered. The room inside resembled the TARDIS, only with fewer buttons and more of a welcoming interior.

“I think your room was over there, and mine is on the other side.” Tia said. “Have a rest for now; we’ll plan the next part when we are both fully rested.”

“What, can’t we leave this ship first? I mean, what if they find the secret room?”

“They won’t. They _will_ if we leave now. The ship’s radar will be able to detect us.”

“Okay.” Clara sighed. “I guess rest it is then. Good night.” She paused momentarily. “Or morning or afternoon, whichever it is.”

As Clara sat down on her bed, she noticed a chalkboard in her room. ‘CLARA!’ was written on it in the Doctor’s writing. Clara sighed. This regeneration was always with the chalkboard.

She approached it and rubbed off the message only to find another one in its place: ‘DREAMING!’

The chalkboard eraser dropped on the floor with a thud. Clara denied what the message was telling her. “No.”

She hesitantly picked the eraser up again and rubbed the message off.

 ‘Wake up’

‘You’

‘Are’

‘Dying.’

Clara turned around frantically, feeling insecure. “This is real. I know it is!”

A knock interrupted her. “Clara? Are you okay?” Tia’s voice sounded from outside the door.

The moment she turned around, the blackboard was gone. “Yeah, fine. Sorry.”

She breathed out and closed her eyes, sifting through her memories. “Okay, this is a dream. If this is a dream, how do I get out of it?” She opened her eyes. “The ice cream pain.” She searched for the ice cream pain, but there was none.

“Doctor, what do I do?!” Clara pleaded. In her pockets, she felt a pocket watch. The pocket watch that she had stolen from the Doctor. Two hours… it said. It was continuously counting down.

“Two hours till what?!” She hissed, frustrated. She spotted a letter wedged between the blackboard and the wall.

_‘Dear Clara...’_

oOoOoOoOoOoOoO

As soon as Tia hit the bed, she fell asleep.

“Hello, Tia.” In her dream, she was little again looking at her older self. Seeing the older Tia was strange. The older Tia found a small switch under a painting, opened the door and led her into a spaceship.

“You guys want to have a moment to yourselves? Go ahead.” Clara smiled. “I’ll be… in my room.” The speed her smile faded made the young Tia realise that something was bothering her.

The older Tia led her into her room. She made her sit down facing the blackboard.

“Now, you have to make sure that you memorise this equation.” The older Tia said as she scribbled down crazy equations. Except that they weren’t crazy. They made sense… to an extent.

“Why?”

“Mummy and daddy. Do you remember them?” The older-self asked her.

“Yes. Of course.”

“Tell me everything you can remember about them. Their appearance, what you used to do with them and things like that.” Her face was so serious, so scary. She didn’t want to be like her. She seemed so troubled, like Clara, and like the Doctor.

“I don’t know.” She replied hesitantly, shrugging. She’d just seen her mother die on the lawn. Why couldn’t she remember what they looked like?

“Exactly.” The older Tia frowned. “Because they’re not real.” She brought out a needle and pricked her finger. Blood started dripping onto the ground.

“Stop! Why did you do that?! Where’s a band aid?! You have to stop it from bleeding.” She yelled. “It’s going to be…”

The drops of blood turned green and it stayed a dark green.

“You’ll find that yours is exactly the same, too.” The older Tia explained as she wiped the blood off of her finger. “We… I am the only one who can create the poison because I _am_ the poison. Our parents, they ‘created’ us. Created us to develop the perfect poison. They are not parents, they are farmers and we are the cattle. Like people said, we knew far too much to be a toddler.” She sighed. “You always wondered why the Doctor looked so sad. You probably thought Clara looked sad too, right?”

“How…?” Of course she knew. She was, after all, herself. That was confusing.

“They look sad because of us. One day, we create this poison for other people to use. And bad people will use it to kill everyone they hate. Clara” She choked on her tears. “Clara and the Doctor… they die from the poison too.”

“Clara’s alive though! We just saw her go to her room!”

Older Tia glanced at the clock. “By now she will be gasping for air. Her heart will be beating too slowly to support her body and she’ll slowly go into a state of unconsciousness.”

“What?!” She exclaimed in shock. “We have to help her!”

The door to the spaceship opened with a deafening explosion. “Clara!” Young Tia ran to Clara’s bedroom.

“No, Tia!” The older self chased her to Clara’s room, where as she had said, Clara was on the floor, dying.

The young Tia shook Clara, trying to wake her up. “Clara! I’m sorry I killed you. I’m sorry, please wake up!” She was begging.

The older Tia placed a vortex manipulator around young Tia’s tiny wrist and she was gone in a flash.

Tia was ripped away from sleep. She reached under the bed to find a small box containing the vortex manipulator. There was writing on the blackboard in red chalk.

“Time’s running out.” It said in spine chilling handwriting. The red chalk made it look like it was written in blood.

Tia breathed heavily and rubbed it off.

“Do it”

“Right”

“Now!”

She closed her eyes and the blackboard disappeared.

“Tiana Gatford. Wakey wakey. Time for you to kill Clara and the Doctor.” The low, murderous voice whispered in her ear.

She woke up on the bed, screaming.

“Shh, it’s okay.” Clara hugged her. “You’re safe.”

Tia cried into her shoulders.

“Shh, it’s just a nightmare.” Clara’s soothing voice calmed her down.

“I’m sorry Clara. I’m sorry.” Tia sobbed. She reached under the bed and felt the box. “But I need you to do me a favour.”

“What is it?”

“I need you to go back and bring my younger self here.”


	17. The Doctor's Help

"So, say that again?"

"I want you to build a secret compartment on the army ship. Here's the blueprint for it, and I will supply you with the ship."

"If someone finds out, I will be fired. With a lot of pain."

"Yeah, except I know for a fact that you don't. You manage to win the lottery and get to live in a mansion with a lovely wife and five kids. You see, I'm a time traveller."

"There's no lottery!" The builder smashed down on a table, half drunk.

"Oh, come on, pudding brain. I told you, I am a time traveller. You'll be the first one to win it!"

"No… you're bonkers. I'm leaving." He tipsily stood up from the bar stool.

"Wait, wait, wait. What if I told you your mate, Konig, is going to get a promotion?"

"Konig?! I hate that bastard!"

"Yes, yes, I know that. But  _if_  you do as I say in  _this_  blueprint,  _you_  will be the one getting a promotion. Konig, on the other hand, will be fired for building the wrong thing in the wrong place. My blueprint actually corrects some of the misprints in your original design, for example the central power column…."

"Deal. Anything to get him fired." The builder spat on his hand and offered him a handshake to symbolise the agreement.

"Sorry, I have a uh, hand disease… very infectious. Let's say we did the… spitty thing, uh, verbally." The Doctor said. "Thank you though. Thank you so much. Enjoy your promotion and your wife and your five kids."

He made his way back to the TARDIS to find little Tia, half crying.

"You!" The Doctor said in shock.

"Doctor? Why are you here?!" She instantly stopped crying. Good, he couldn't stand kids crying.

"No, you just stole my question!" The Doctor said pointing. "You can't just teleport here without permission! I'm not a taxi service, you know!"

Tia's crying changed to a laugh. "Your eyebrows are hilarious."

The Doctor rolled his eyes. At least she wasn't crying.

"What's outside?" Tia asked as she approached a door, completely forgetting about what she had witnessed.

The Doctor realised he was just in a pub, which is not really a good place for a toddler (or was she an infant? No idea. She was some kind of a small pudding brain).

"Nothing useful. I just told a little friend to build a safe place for you and Clara in the future." He pressed a button on the console. "Timey wimey thing."

"What about we go for a trip? Kids like trips right?" He changed the topic as he pressed random buttons.

"Yeah!"

The TARDIS landed on the newly finished starship. He grabbed onto the vortex manipulator and teleported to a corridor with Tia.

"Now, you'll probably come here when you are older. So take notes or something."

He pressed on the switch and the secret doors hissed open.

"Cool!" She ran inside. She had been here just before, but everything then had looked weathered down. This time, everything was sparkling new. She ran into her room, trying out the new chalkboard.

"Careful not to cut yourself. The effects would be… disastrous." The Doctor muttered as she disappeared into one of the rooms. In the thin book back in the TARDIS library, he had found a biography of Tia. He knew that she was a child of a successful experiment and despite her brilliance, her feat would be overshadowed by the one drop of her blood, which would kill hundreds and thousands of people.

"Look, Doctor!" Tia popped out of nowhere and dragged him into a room in the spaceship.

"I've already memorised it!" Tia said, proudly showing him the set of equations. "My older self told me to memorise the equation… I think I managed to do it!"

The Doctor froze. That was the equation for the antitoxin. The key to solving the time loop that had been set around Clara and the Doctor.

"Oh, Tia, you are brilliant." He kissed Tia on her forehead. But when he looked at the equation again, he realised the mistakes.

"But that's not right. Clara's past showed that the antitoxin had a solid body. These equations are only theories of what could be possible." The Doctor talked to himself, trying to correct the equations but to no avail. He reached for the fob watch– except he couldn't find it.

The mention of 'Clara' brought the memories of her dying back into Tia.

"No, where is it?!" He looked all around. "No, no, no, no!" Then an image flashed through his mind. Clara had hugged him in the infirmary. He realised that she was the one who had taken the watch! That was double bad news. Very, extremely bad news. The fob watch originated from the sisterhood of Karn – a watch used to keep track of how much life the Time Lords had before their regeneration. The Doctor had programmed it so that it would show the amount of life that Clara had left.

"Doctor?" Tia tugged on his suit. Her eyes were all of a sudden filled with tears. "Can you help me with a problem?" Tia couldn't bear the information her older-self had given her. That she was a killer.

"What is it?" He was startled at Tia's teary eyes.

"My older self told me that I am going to kill lots and lots of people including you and Clara in the future. I don't want to kill you… I don't want to kill anyone." She sniffled. "And before I was sent here, I saw your friend, Clara, dying."

oOoOoOoOoO

BANG

Tia had just been shot with a bullet from a soldier. A lucky shot. The time ticked by slowly as she reached the ground. She saw Clara's face, seeming to grow paler with every passing second.

"I'm sorry." Tia managed to utter as she hit the ground, facing Clara. She was bleeding out, slowly dying in agony.

Clara slowly opened her eyes. "I know." She whispered as she took off her life support with great difficulty. She placed it on Tia.

"No, Clara, what the hell are you doing?! You will DIE!" Tia felt the wound stitching itself up. At that moment, the flashing SOS lights stopped. They were finally connected to the TARDIS.

_"Hello?"_ A familiar Scottish accent sounded from the other side of the connection.

"Doctor!" Tia hugged Clara's body in her arms. "You have to hurry." The bullets were still pelting down. Tia was surprised that they haven't been hit by any more. 'So much for secret rooms' She sighed. Why was her life plagued with bad luck?! The soldiers were probably trying to get into the ship, and judging by the occasional bullets, they were nearly there.

"Who is this?" Her trail of though dispersed as the angry Scottish voice questioned.

"It's Tia. I can't talk any longer. Clara's dying. Find us at space time coordinates 7:82-3492-35-9." She quickly read the coordinates written on the life support watch.

As soon as she hung up, she realised they were already on board the Doctor's machine.


	18. Promise to Let Me Go

"Clara!" The Doctor held her in his arms. It broke his hearts to look at her pale face draining of life.

She gasped and held onto the Doctor. She was still alive! A tiny spark of hope ignited in the Doctor's mind.

"Clara!" He cupped the side of her face. He held Clara's fragile body and gently placed her down on the infirmary table.

"Doctor… You have to let me go." Clara whispered. "Please. I just want it to be over." She was crying, all she wanted was for it to stop.

"No, Clara. You have to fight. Just a little longer." He pleaded. "I can fix this. I promise." The antitoxin. The equations… It had to work. It must. He rushed around, frantically gathering everything he needed.

"Doctor! You are not listening to me…" Her cold, trembling hands held onto the Doctor's. "Just accept my death… I need you do to do that for me. Please, just listen to me. Just this once, do as you're told."

"Don't be silly, Clara, you are not dead. You are under my protection. I am the Doctor, and I am going to fix you." He froze as he saw the last part of the equation. In front of him was a black liquid. He hadn't properly read the ending until now.

"The equation…it… it doesn't make sense"

He felt a cold hand gently squeezing his shoulder. Clara was standing behind him. No, that wasn't possible.

"How..?"

"Tell me, Doctor. What does the ending of the equation tell you?" Clara's calm voice was confusing him even more.

"This isn't an antitoxin." He whispered.

"No, it's not. So… what is it?" Clara pushed him for answers.

"It's a potion. It forces you to regenerate." He frowned. "This is not possible. Theoretically, it could cancel the effects for Time Lords… but it will be toxic for humans. This was not what I was looking for. Nor was it possible for any human beings to discover."

Clara gave him a sad smile.

"The Polovox toxin. It affects your brain." Clara slowly paced along the noisy scanners, switching them off. "It makes you hallucinate. Am I correct?"

"Yes, but…" Clara quickly placed her finger on his lips.

The Doctor was so confused. One moment Clara was on the brink of death, the next moment, she wasn't.

"Does this seem real to you?"

He frowned at the question.

"Of course it is. Why would you even ask that?"

Clara took his arm and led him to the library, where the books were still in piles on the floor from him searching for Tia's identity.

"Tia, where is she now?" Clara asked, placing the books back into a neat pile. "Now, here's a better question. Both younger and older Tia is present in the TARDIS. Why hasn't the TARDIS collapse from the paradox? In my memory, I know you rejected the older Amy from entering the TARDIS for the same reason."

"The TARDIS probably fixed the paradox. She's probably in the console room. Why are you asking me these questions?" He refused to believe everything she was trying to imply.

"Voice interface." Clara called out.

"Voice interface activated." The picture of the Doctor appeared.

"Scan for Doctor Tiana Gatford in the TARDIS."

"Scan completed. She is not present in the ship." She stared at the Doctor. He slowly shook his head in denial.

"I… I don't understand."

"Have you realised how Tia doesn't make sense? How does she know both of us so well? For her, she's only met you once, and I wasn't even in the picture. The only explanation she gave was 'timey wimey'. Where did she get a vortex manipulator from? How can she know the equation that no human beings can discover?"

He backed away shaking his head.

"Remember the polar base? I was consumed by the dream crabs. You risked your life to wake me up from my dream. What was that dream about?" Clara's voice wavered slightly.

"Christmas. You dreamt of soldier boy."

"And why did I dream about him?"

"Because…" The Doctor firmly shook his head. "No… That's not true."

"Because I was grieving. Because that alternative was much better than the loss I had experienced. He was alive again. Just for one last time, we were happy."

"Look at the books closely. Remember the test we did in the North Pole?" Clara placed a random bottle of liquid Gallifreyan encyclopaedia in his hand.

"Now, as you know, Gallifreyan encyclopaedias are linked psychically… which means…."

"Which means you won't be able to hear it in your dormant mind. Even if you do, it will sound like gibberish."

"Like a book test, but for Time Lords."

The Doctor stared at the bottle. He was scared. Properly scared.

Clara gestured. "Go on."

With trembling hands, he opened the bottle, and heard nothing. No… listening closely, he heard three words on a loop.

"You are dying."

He dropped the bottle in shock.

"How… how did you know?" He asked Clara breathlessly. "How did you know it was all a dream? For all I know, you are dreaming with me."

"Well, sort of. Technically I am in your dream because there is still psychic residue left in the TARDIS."

"The TARDIS?" He froze, he remembered dying on the TARDIS.

"Good, Doctor, you are waking up. Think about what happened. Carefully."

"I saw you in the hospital. I saved you with the bracelet."

Clara shook her head. "Think  _deeper_. What happened  _before_ all of that?"

He closed his eyes.

He saw Clara dying… no. Dead. In her grave… and then in the capsule in his TARDIS, next to Kate, whom he had preserved just before her death. Then he was dying from the poison... alone in the TARDIS, preparing for the worst.

"No." He shook his head in denial. "I fixed that timeline where you died. That's why you are alive. That was not a hallucination. Please tell me I wasn't hallucinating from the poison. I don't want to live in a world without you, Clara." That was almost a confession. He knew that Clara knew that as well.

"Doctor, remember the ship in the asteroid belt? It was the second place that this version of you took me to. Where we met Rusty. I told you and the soldiers that I was your carer. This is me… a best friend, your carer, protecting you. Wake up, my warrior, and live the lives I never could." Clara cupped his cheeks. "Doctor, when you do wake up, you have to save yourself. With your residual energy, you'll be able to save Kate as well. Tia too, if she is still alive. But promise to let me go. You'll be wasting your energy if you use it on me. I'm… too far gone."

Clara gave him a light kiss on his cheeks. He disappeared and she was left in this universe, where she knew, if she woke up, she would be back in her dead body. She took out the letter which had once been wedged behind the blackboard in her room. "Dear Clara," it read on the outside. She gently opened it and smiled in sadness.

"You are already dead. Save the Doctor before it's too late."

She turned around to face her mum, who was always there- every step of the way.

"I did it, mum. I saved him." She whispered, a small tear sliding down her face.

"I am so proud of you." Ellie gently wiped the tear and hugged her.

oOoOoOoOoOooOoOoOoOoOo

The Doctor gasped quietly. He was in the TARDIS, and everything was overwhelming him. Lights, the humming sound… even his hearts thumping.

"Voice interface…"

He called out the equation, and in front of him was a vial full of the black liquid.

When he drank it, a golden light consumed him. When he opened his eyes again, he scrambled to the mirror. A familiar face with furious eyebrows stared at him.

"It worked." He let out a small laugh. "The toxin cancelled out with the potion!" With no time to lose, he threw open the TARDIS door to see the blackened body of Tia. He touched her and she came back to life, with no scratches or wounds on her body.

He ran to the freezer room and took Kate out of the capsule. He used the remaining energy on her.

The Doctor paused in front of Clara's capsule, where Clara looked like she was peacefully asleep. He placed his hands on the window of the capsule.

"Thank you." He choked the words out. "And I'm sorry."

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

The Doctor returned to the console room with a sigh.

McGillop was not alone anymore – he had a new assistant, who, in some ways, knew more than she let on. Kate was back as the scientific manager of UNIT and everything was normal. Except that empty hole in the Doctor's hearts he could never fill.

He returned Clara's body back in her grave to rest, which was more traumatising than he initially thought.

He placed a white lily on the grave.

"This is me... letting go. Rest in peace - I will always remember you, my impossible girl."

OooOoOoOoOoOo

One day, he was sitting in a café sipping on his tea, staring out into his window. It was the same café as the one they had their first 'proper' hug. Which was also Clara's favourite cafe. The memories flooded him, but he let it consume him. He was filled with the happy days, thrilling chases and their constant banter.

"Doctor?"

He heard a cup smashing on the floor.

He looked up. His eyes widened as much as the pair that was returning the stare.

"Clara."

**The end**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of the story!  
> Hope you enjoyed it- you guys have been FANTASTIC!


End file.
